Exploring How the Heterogeneity of Building Types in Community Microgrids Impact Their Value Proposition

Abstract Community microgrids present a compelling new approach for designing and operating the next generation of power grids. The extent to which their benefits can be realized depends on their constituent buildings, energy infrastructure, and the control algorithms that maintain grid balance. Conventional practice has been to treat the former as inflexible, meaning micro-grids are often designed for a preset group to buildings. However, as microgrids evolve to consider multiple stakeholder needs (such as consumers, prosumers and utilities), the ability for them to maximize stakeholder value — in terms of demand flexibility and energy resiliency — relies on an optimal building composition. This work advances the hypothesis that heterogeneous microgrid compositions exhibit distinguishable value propositions for different stakeholders which, if identified and understood, can provide decision support for microgrid design and adoption at scale. By leveraging the US Department of Energy’s ComStock dataset, we conduct an in-depth empirical study which uncovers trends to support the inclusion (and in some cases exclusion) of a variety of building types when composing community microgrids. The pairing of hotels with quick service restaurants, for example, was one of several key findings that illustrate how complimentary building relationships can be leveraged to advance energy self sufficiency and demand flexibility in community microgrids.