Analyzing variability and coordinated demand management for various flexible integrations of residential distributed energy resources

Deploying distributed energy resources (DERs) is crucial for decarbonizing the building sector, but challenges arise due to the energy mismatch between on-site generation and consumption. Impacts of large-scale development of distributed energy technology are seldom evaluated from a system-wide perspective. This study primarily utilizes high-resolution meter data to analyze residential energy consumption behaviors and variability of solar photovoltaics (PV), heat pump and fuel cell throughout the year. Then, rolling horizon optimization is applied to harness demand flexibility through scheduling developed integrated energy systems, considering synergies between on-site energy resources and demand side management. The techno-economic performances of the integrated systems are investigated by adopting wholesale spot prices for PV grid feed-in. Results show that flexible schedule of integrated energy systems can deliver multiple benefits, including energy saving, cost reduction and grid-support interaction, improvement in PV self-consumption through flexible coupling can exceed 40 % compared to the measured results. The effectiveness of demand-side solutions strongly depends on the density and variability of household energy consumption, micro cogeneration presents a greater potential of cost-saving and carbon reduction in winter months. Findings emphasize the importance of coordinated demand management strategy in enhancing effectiveness of energy usage and grid-friendly interactions under widespread DERs implementation.