Integration of distributed generation systems into generic types of commercial buildings in California

Abstract

Distributed generation (DG) of combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) has been gaining momentum in recent years as an efficient, secure alternative for meeting increasing power demands in the world. One of the most critical and emerging markets for DG-CCHP systems is commercial and institutional buildings. The present study focuses analysis on the main economic, energy-efficiency, and environmental impacts of the integration of three types of advanced DG technologies (high-temperature fuel cells, micro-turbines, and photovoltaic solar panels) into four types of representative generic commercial building templates (small office building, medium office building, hospital, and college/school) in southern California (e.g., mild climate), using eQUEST as energy simulation tool. Detailed load profiles for the four commercial building types during times of peak electric and peak gas consumption were analyzed and complementary strategies to further increase overall building energy efficiencies such as energy efficiency measures (e.g., day lighting, exterior shading, improved HVAC performance) and thermally activated absorption cooling were also investigated. Results show that the high-temperature fuel cell (HTFC) performance is best matched with the hospital energy loads, resulting in a 98% DG capacity factor, 85% DG heat recovery factor, and $860,000 in energy savings (6 years payback). The introduction of thermally driven double-effect absorption cooling (AC) in the college building with HTFC reduces significantly the building electricity-to-thermal load ratio and boosts the heat recovery factor from 37% to 97%. # 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Economic and sensitivity analyses of dynamic distributed generation dispatch to reduce building energy cost

“…Researchers have examined the effects of electric load following, thermal load following, baseload operation, and other dispatch strategies [11,25,[32][33][34] as well as dispatch schedules determined through optimization [35,36]. Other efforts have focused on optimization methods that determine the DG installation size as well as the DG operation to minimize total cost [5,24,26,[37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

“…Further studies demonstrate that both FCs and MTGs are best suited for situations with a large and consistent electrical and thermal load as they take full advantage of all the products of the FC or MTG, and that for situations without a consistent thermal load, it is better to employ a generator with higher electrical efficiency [24,25] or to abandon attempts to recover heat in the DG system design [26]. It was also shown that buildings with low electrical load factors and large heating demand were well suited for GT installation [24].…”

Development of an open access tool for design, simulated dispatch, and economic assessment of distributed generation technologies

“…Some previous studies have evaluated a variety of building CHP systems (i.e. gas turbines, gas engines, diesel engines and phosphoric acid fuel cells) applied to four generic commercial buildings in Japan [12] or four commercial buildings in California [13].…”

Dynamic distributed generation dispatch strategy for lowering the cost of building energy

“…FC and MTG systems that follow building electrical demand have been studied, showing that both technologies are best suited for situations with large and consistent electrical and thermal demand as they take full advantage of all the FC and MTG products (electricity and heat) and that for situations without a consistent thermal load, it is better to employ a generator with higher electrical efficiency [12,13]. FC systems capable of electric demand tracking were also used to show the need for low DG capital cost and high building thermal demand for economic viability [14].…”