Enhancing Utilization of PV Energy in Building Microgrids via Autonomous Demand Response

Abstract

This article investigates the autonomous demand response (ADR) in a building microgrid incorporating photovoltaic (PV) generation and plug-in electric vehicles. Two operation models are introduced in this article to enhance the self-utilization of PV power: 1) mixed integer programming (MIP)-based optimization model; and 2) the game theoretic model. To avoid the disadvantages of MIP-based centralized optimization in a decentralized approach, a non-cooperative ADR game framework is formulated based on the proposed virtual cost mechanism for each player to help in selecting the optimal consumption strategy coordinately. The existence of the unique Nash equilibrium which coincides with the optimal solution of the MIP-based operation model is proved. In addition, an iterative algorithm is developed to determine the equilibrium solution for the ADR game. Simulation results verify that the non-cooperative game-based ADR program is effective in improving the utilization of PV energy and benefits to microgrid systems.