Power Electronics Platforms for Grid-Tied Smart Buildings

Abstract

Renewable energy sources (such as sun, wind, water, or fuel cells) are attracting great interest for either grid-tied or off-grid arrangements in smart green buildings. It must be either used when generated, stored for future use on-site, delivered to the power grid, or shared among combination of these. Grid-tied buildings are connected to the utility grid service lines. Off-grid buildings have no connection to utility service lines. Both types employ inverters to convert power from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC), and most off-grid systems have batteries to store energy for use when needed. Accordingly, power electronics systems are playing an important role as the enabling technology for smart grid. In addition, smart meter represents the interface part between the green building and the utility grid. In order to realize the interaction between both systems, a bidirectional power conditioning module is needed. This chapterintroduces the different power electronics platforms suitable for grid-tied smart green buildings (such as residential homes, commercial, and industrial) as well as its integrative functionality with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). In orderto show the superiority of these platforms in conjunction with smart meters, a hardware case study with one of the most popular power electronics topologies is presented.