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Article history: The emergence of smart grids, Net-zero energy buildings, and advanced building energy demand response tech-
Received 19 April 2016 nologies continuously drives the needs for better design and operation strategies for buildings and distributed
Received in revised form 27 September 2016 energy systems. It is envisioned that similar to micro-communities in a human society, neighboring buildings
Accepted 28 September 2016
will have the tendency to form a building cluster, an open cyber-physical system to exploit the economic oppor-
Available online 25 November 2016
tunities provided by smart grids and distributed energy systems. To realize this building cluster envision, it re-
Keywords:
quires better urban energy planning and operation control strategies to determine which type of buildings
Net-zero building cluster should be clustered and what operation strategies should be implemented to fully utilize the potential in load ag-
Net-zero buildings gregation, load shifting, and resource allocation. However, most of the current tools are focusing on single build-
Smart grids ings or devices, which are not suitable for building cluster studies. To this end, this study proposes to develop a
Distributed energy systems Net-zero building cluster emulator that can simulate realistic energy behaviors of a cluster of buildings and
Co-simulation their distributed energy devices as well as exchange operation data and control schemes with real-world building
control systems. The developed emulator has the exibility to integrate with different buildings and distributed
energy systems to study the performance of this building cluster to propose suggestions in urban energy planning
and operation. To show the application of this emulator, a proof-of-concept demonstration is also presented in
this paper.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2016.09.007
0198-9715/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Li, J. Wen / Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62 (2017) 168181 169
research has also focused on developing operation strategies to improve distributed energy systems in EnergyPlus and TRNSYS. These models
energy efciency, such as building energy forecasting (Building Energy are detailed enough to be used to assess the effectiveness of various con-
Software Tools, n.d.; Bonvini et al., 2014), building temperature control trol strategies, and have been experimentally validated in previous
(Lee & Braun, 2008; Ma et al., 2012; Li & Malkawi, 2016), distributed en- studies. To link all these models together and to enable simultaneous
ergy system integration (Hajiah & Krarti, 2012; Mulder, Ridder, & Six, simulation, this emulator uses a Building Controls Virtual Test Bed
2010), and operation optimization and fault detection (Oldewurtel et (BCVTB) developed by LBNL (Wetter & Haves, 2008). After various
al., 2012). Even though these studies have made signicant achieve- models are assembled to form a building cluster emulator, a proof-of-
ments, they focused on only single building and its interactions with concept operation demonstration is then presented. In this demonstra-
distributed systems. Moreover, the benets from Net-zero building tion, only two buildings, one ice tank, one PV panel, and one battery are
cluster concept have not been fully investigated. A comprehensive re- included in this building cluster, but the emulator has the exibility to
view paper introduced and summarized the state of art of building integrate more buildings and devices. Section 2 describes the overall
and distributed energy systems studies (Li & Wen, 2014), which also structure of this emulator, followed by the detailed information about
probed the necessities in studying interactions between different build- the module development and connection in Sections 3 and 4. Finally,
ings, energy systems, and smart grids. The effectiveness of building clus- Section 5 presents testing criteria of the proof-of-concept demonstra-
ter concept in improving energy efciency and resilience has been tion and the simulated results.
proved in limited number of studies (Lamoudi, Bguery, & Alamir,
2011; Maasoumy et al., 2014; Li, Wen, & Malkawi, 2016; Hu et al., 2. Emulator overall design and operation
2012). All these studies, however, use simplied physics based models
or data-driven models for operation simulation and control strategy de- 2.1. Emulator design
termination. The results from those highly simplied models are dif-
cult to verify against the reality of complex building clusters. The overall emulator design and connection are illustrated in Fig. 2.
Therefore, this study proposes to develop a building cluster emulator In this emulator, there are four simulation modules: building module,
that can simulate the operation of multiple buildings and distributed ice tank module, PV-battery module, and operation module. Besides
energy systems, and especially device sharing and resources allocation, these simulation modules, there is a simulation operation module,
by using more sophisticated simulation tools to verify and assess the which contains a database for simulation conditions and operation
proposed building cluster formation and operation schemes. strategies, and a simulation result analysis model. The PV-battery mod-
Most building energy simulation tools, unfortunately, focus only on ule and the ice tank module are shared within this building cluster.
single building or single energy system. For example, EnergyPlus EnergyPlus is chosen to simulate the buildings and ice tank thermal
(Crawley et al., 2001) is a detailed physics-based whole building simu- storage devices, because it is widely used and validated to provide de-
lation program that can simulate the targeted building energy con- tailed simulation results at a minimum 1-min time step. TRNSYS is se-
sumption from HVAC, lighting, and other equipment. TRNSYS is lected to simulate the PV panel power generation and battery system.
another exible graphics-based software environment used to simulate Operation module, which can provide the control and operation strate-
the behavior of transient systems. There are also several studies focus- gies, is present in MATLAB. BCVTB serves as a middleware to connect all
ing on developing distributed energy system models in TRNSYS, such the simulation models.
as PV panels models (De Soto, Klein, & Beckman, 2006) and battery
models (Kim, 2013). To the best of the authors' knowledge, no simula- 2.2. Emulator operation
tion tool exists that can simulate the Net-zero building cluster cases pro-
posed in this study. The proposed Net-zero building cluster emulator The emulator will store control and operation schemes in the data-
selects detailed physics-based simulation models for buildings and base and apply them in each module within this cluster through
170 X. Li, J. Wen / Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62 (2017) 168181
MATLAB and BCVTB. Table 1 summarizes the major inputs and outputs each time step and a set of new control signals will then be sent to the
of each module. cluster.
At each simulation time step, the emulator provides real-world-like
noisy and noise-free measurements according to the simulation re- 3. Emulator module development
sults, such as energy generation and performance data of energy storage
devices. The control signals sent from the operation module are building 3.1. Building module
heating and cooling setpoints (Tseph, Tsepc), operation energy generation
and storage (Si, Sb, Spv), and electricity purchasing and selling (Ep, Es); of Although the test bed can include any number and type of
these signals, the rst two are sent to the building module, Si is sent to EnergyPlus building models, only two different buildings are included
the ice tank module, Sb and Spv are sent to PV-battery module, and Ep in this demonstration. Building simulation models for two typical medi-
and Es are sent to the simulation operation module. Meanwhile, build- um-size ofce buildings in Philadelphia developed in a previous study
ing measurements (Eb, Tzone, etc.) are outputs from the building module, are selected for this cluster emulator (Hendricken et al., 2012). This
ice tank measurements (SOCice, Tchlw, Mchlw, and Eice) are output from rst building is a one-story, 464.5-m2 commercial building and the
the ice tank module, PV-battery measurements (Epv, Ebat, and SOCbat) other one is a three-story, 1393.55-m2 commercial building. The win-
are output from the PV-battery module, and Ptou, Pc, and Pe are output dow-to-wall ratio for both buildings is approximately 0.29. The win-
from the power grid module. All these outputs will be transferred to dows are of various single- and double-pane construction with 3- and
the simulation operation module to assess the control strategies at 6-mm glass and either 6- or 13-mm argon or air gap. The U-factors of
the single- and double-pane windows are 0.173 and 0.086 W/m2 K,
Table 1
Building cluster inputoutput summary.
Table 2
Simulation Input Major output Building internal and external heat gains.
module
Heat source Value Unit
Building Tseph (heating Eb (building energy consumption), Edc
model setpoint) (dedicated chiller energy consumption), Ebc Occupant 0.1 Person/square meter
Tsepc (cooling (base chiller energy consumption), Tzone Ventilation 0.0125 Cubic meter/second person
setpoint) (building zone temperature), Hzone (Building Lighting power 15 Watts/square meter
zone humidity) Interior Plug Loads 10 Watts/square meter
Ice tank Si (operation state SOCice (ice tank state of charge), Eice (charging Envelope Inltration 9.4E-4 Cubic meter/second square meter
of ice tank) and discharging rate), Tchlw (chilled water
in/out temperature), Mchlw (chilled water
in/out temperature ow rate)
Battery Sb (operation state SOCbat (battery state of battery), Ebat (charging Table 3
model of battery) and discharging rate), Ibat (charging and Building mechanical systems.
discharging current)
Building I Building II
PV model Spv (operation state Epv (Power generation)
of PV panel) System 3 CAV, RTUs 3 CAV, AHUs
Power Ep (Power buying Rtou(Time-of-use price), Pc(electricity costs), Main cooling coil DX, COP 3 Chilled water
grid from power grid) Pe(electricity earnings) Main heating coil Hot water Hot water
model Es (Power selling to Zone reheat Hot water Eclectic
power grid) Heat plant Central boiler Central boiler
X. Li, J. Wen / Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62 (2017) 168181 171
respectively. Both buildings have deck roofs with R-15 insulation and 3.2. PV-battery module
solar absorptivity of 0.9. A summary of the heat gains is presented in
Table 2. The rst building system is a single-duct constant air volume PV panel power generation and battery electricity storage are
(CAV) rooftop unit (RTU) system, and the other one is a single-duct modeled together as a PV-battery module in this emulator. As shown
CAV air-handling unit (AHU) system. in Fig. 3, the PV-battery system module contains a PV panel model, a
A summary of the mechanical systems is presented in Table 3. The battery model, a power grid model, a local operation controller model,
rst building system is a single-duct CAV RTU system and the other and two inverter models.
one is a single-duct CAV AHU system. All these components are modeled individually and interconnected
in TRNSYS. The PV panel is modeled using Type 194 in TRNSYS, which
is based on the diode equivalent circuit model to calculate the power
generation rate, outlet current, and voltage (Fry, 1998):
Table 4 q
PV panel model parameter. I I L I0 exp V IRs 1 1
kT c
Parameter Value Unit
same TMY3 weather les for Philadelphia, which can easily be replaced
Table 6 with real weather condition les and other weather les for other loca-
Ice thermal storage tank and dedicated chiller parameter. tions. The MATLAB Controller component is connected with the over-
Parameter Value Unit all operation module, which passes the overall operation signals into
Ice tank capacity 0.2 GJ
the PV-battery module, such as schedules for PV charging battery,
Tank loss coefcient 0.0003 PV providing power to building, Battery discharging power to
Freezing temperature 0 C building.
Dedicated chilled capacity 7000 W
Dedicated chilled COP 3.2
3.3. Ice tank thermal storage module
Fig. 5. (a): Ice tank thermal storage system conguration; (b): building chilled water conguration.
X. Li, J. Wen / Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62 (2017) 168181 173
Table 8
Building and ice tank settings for summer (winter).
Table 9
PV-battery and ice tank schedule.
Therefore, the ice storage tank will cover the load request in this load 4. Emulator module connection
prole, representing the coverage of the building's cooling requests.
The overall schematic of the chilled water loop of the ice storage system 4.1. Virtual power generator model in EnergyPlus
is illustrated in Fig. 5a. To simulate the chilled water received by each
building model, a new user-dened component, ice cooling, is created Because the PV panel and battery system are modeled in TRNSYS, a
in the supply side of the chilled water loop within each building model. virtual power generator model is created in the building models to
Similar to a series chiller conguration, the new ice cooling component represent the electricity provided from the PV-battery module (Fig. 7).
is in a series conguration before the base chiller. The ice cooling com- This virtual power generator will be controlled by TrackSchedule
ponent will cover some part of the cooling load rst, and the base chiller scheme (US DOE, 2013b) to generate the same amount of power as
will then cover the remaining cooling loads. The building chilled water that provided by the PV-battery module. This power generation
loop conguration is illustrated in Fig. 5b. value is rst simulated in the TRNSYS PV-battery module and then
Appendix A provides the detailed program for ice cooling model imported into the MATLAB operation module, and nally transferred
development and chilled water exchanging. The overall schematic of to the virtual power generator in EnergyPlus through the BCVTB. Energy
ice cooling is illustrated in Fig. 6. management system (EMS) is used to develop the virtual power gener-
As introduced before, the temperature of returning chilled water will ator and exchange the information through an external interface. Ap-
be decreased by the ice cooling component and then sent into the base pendix A provides the detailed EMS program for this interconnection
chiller: between PV-battery and building modules.
where Tdc,stp and Qicetot are signals controlling the ice storage tank, that is,
ice storage dedicated chiller outlet water temperature setpoint and total
cooling request from all the buildings, respectively; TiH , TiC , PiPB, and Qiice
are the control signals to ith building; TiH and TiC are heating and cooling
temperature setpoints; PiPB is the electricity provided to the building
from PV and battery system; Qiice is the cooling provided to the building
from ice storage tank; and SPV, Sbat, and Sice are the operation status
(charging, discharging, or dormant) of PV panel, battery, and ice tank sys-
tems, respectively. The reason why Tdc, stp is provided in the operation
module is that the charging and discharging schedule of the ice storage
thermal storage model in EnergyPlus is controlled by the dedicated chill-
er outlet temperature and the ice storage outlet temperature setpoints.
Details of the ice tank operation control in EnergyPlus can be found in
EnergyPlus InputOutput Reference (US DOE, 2013b). Fig. 10. Building temperature simulation results: (a) building I and (b) building II.
176 X. Li, J. Wen / Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62 (2017) 168181
Fig. 12. Ice tank operation results. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
X. Li, J. Wen / Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62 (2017) 168181 177
power to buildings. In summer, the ice tank is charged by a dedicated Similarly, Fig. 11 plots the PV-battery module simulation results.
chiller at night and discharges chilled water to buildings in the peak Identical to the operation signals in Table 8, PV panel starts to charge
hours. The ice tank is kept completely off in winter. The building cluster battery in early morning and provides power to the building after the
test operation results under these operation strategies will be discussed battery is fully charged. Starting from 12:00 PM, the PV panel and bat-
in the following sections. tery provide power to the buildings together to reduce the peak de-
mand. In the PV-battery model, 60% of the outputted power is
provided to building I, which is the same as the control signals.
5.2. Emulator testing results As predetermined in Table 8, the shared ice storage tank is covering
part of load for building I and building II from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, until
5.2.1. Building cluster simulation results the ice tank is depleted. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 12. The
The proof-of-concept study is conducted on August 1st for summer blue line shows the ice tank storage SOC, which stays full until 8:00 AM
case and on January 3rd for winter case. The location of this building when it starts to discharge until it is depleted. During the discharge peri-
cluster is Philadelphia, PA, USA. Fig. 10 shows the temperature simula- od, the dedicated chiller is also working to meet the cooling requirement
tion results of these two buildings from EnergyPlus for summer and of the buildings. The green line is the amount of ice cooling provided to
winter simulations. These two building models use the same weather building I, which is 60% of the total discharged rate (red line). This test
condition le and internal load schedule, but different temperature validates the ice tank share method described in Section 3.3.
setpoints. In these two plots, the heating and cooling setpoints are iden-
tical to their operation settings in the operation module (Table 8), and 5.2.2. Building cluster energy consumption and cost
the building room temperature is effectively controlled by the temper- The energy consumption and the cost of the building cluster under the
ature setpoints. In Fig. 10 (a), room temperature is beyond control testing condition are shown in Fig. 13. The energy cost does not include
from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the summer case. This is because the peak demand charging, which is usually for large commercial and industri-
cooling demand exceeds the capacity of the air conditioning system. al buildings. The energy consumption at peak hours, from 12:00 PM to
The room temperature is under control in all other cases. 4:00 PM, is reduced in these two buildings, because of the power
Table 10
Building cluster electricity consumption summary.
generation PV panel and battery power discharging, which would save sig- are interconnected through the BCVTB to the MATLAB model. A proof-
nicant energy cost. During off peak hours, ice tank would be charged by of-concept test case is conducted to illustrate the use of this test bed
the power grid, utilizing the lower electricity price. Building type and ther- and verify the data exchange within this emulator. Comparing building
mal mass signicantly affect the building energy consumption and opera- I and building II, however, building thermal mass as an important build-
tion. In this study, building II is larger than building I, and hence consumes ing characteristic plays a signicant role in building operation and energy
more energy (Table 10). The peak demand of building I is approximately savings. Weather conditions such as outdoor air temperature and solar
80 kW, which is less than the power provided by peak PV-battery. There- radiation also greatly affect the energy consumption and energy genera-
fore, the electricity purchasing is zero at noon for about 30 min. From the tion. On the contrary, energy costs of the cluster during off-peak and on-
simulation results, the PV-battery power provided 886.2-kWh electricity peak periods show that building operation, especially the operation of en-
and saved US $205.6, without considering the peak demand charging. ergy generation and storage devices, should be updated according to the
electricity price changing to fully utilize electricity at low rate in off-peak
6. Conclusions and future work hours. Future studies will focus on testing the data exchanging of this em-
ulator with real buildings and distributed energy systems.
In this study, an emulator test bed, which is designed to assess build-
ing cluster operation strategies and simulate a building cluster as well as Acknowledgments
energy generation and storage devices, is developed. In this building clus-
ter emulator, multiple buildings are connected and can share PV panels as Part of this study was conducted at Drexel University. Financial sup-
energy generation devices and battery and ice tank as energy storage sys- port from the National Science Foundation (award number: 1239257) is
tems. Various simulation environments, including EnergyPlus and highly appreciated. The author is also grateful to the Postdoctoral Fellow-
TRNSYS, are used to model different parts of this building cluster and ship from the Center for Green Buildings and Cities at Harvard University.
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