Power to gas energy storage system for energy self-sufficient smart cities development

Abstract

The main energy challenge in the smart cities development is the optimization of the energy system to reduce energy cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The low feed-in tariff offered by the electricity retailer is another incentive to trade the energy within the project boundaries or neighbouring precincts using the Blockchain peer to peer energy trading. This study develops an energy system model for the RENeW Nexus project as part of smart city development at stage one in the City of Fremantle for a small community (Lot 1819) comprising 36 townhouses and 50 apartments. The system was developed to simulate the optimal Power to Gas (P2G) system for excess renewable energy storage in combination with shared strata battery towards an energy self-sufficiency system. The rooftop area of the townhouses in the developed precinct has been used to generate excess renewable energy from solar photovoltaic (PV) to compensate for less area available on the rooftops of the multi-story apartment’s buildings in the presence of a large-scale centralised strata battery. The peer to peer energy trading takes place using Blockchain technology to achieve the energy self-sufficiency goal. The study also identifies the techno-economic viability of P2G system over the large-scale energy storage systems. The model simulation demonstrated that the initial cost of the P2G system is comparably less than the current conventional battery systems.