Energy Router Based Energy Management System for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings

Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) in the building sector, one of the most energy intensive fields in the modern world, are facing new challenges. These extremely energy efficient buildings can produce their own energy whereas local storage and sources are needed. To meet those goals, new technologies and control principles must be developed and implemented. Energy usage could be best optimized by a central energy management system (EMS). This paper proposes an energy router-based EMS for NZEBs. The concept and its features will be explained and analyzed. The energy router has many tasks, e.g. energy routing, system protection and reliability, voltage regulation. However, the focus of this paper will be on the power quality at the point of common coupling (PCC). Modern households are overwhelmed by the nonlinear electrical loads, which are lowering the power quality in the grid. The power quality is a serious issue also in NZEB. This paper will demonstrate how an energy router can be used to control reactive and active power and compensate current harmonics at the PCC. The system behavior will be simulated and verified by the experimental prototype.