PhD thesis defense: March 5th, 2010, 12.00, Senaatszaal Aula, TU Delft.
Title: "Smart Heat and Power: Utilizing the Flexibility of Micro Cogeneration"
Distributed generation (DG) contributes to a more sustainable electricity supply. Large-scale adoption of DG will bring radical changes to the traditional model of generation and supply as well as to the business model of the power industry. Furthermore, with innovations in information and communication technology (e.g. smart metering), energy and information infrastructures become more and more entwined and smart grids are enabled.
Specific potential for applying DG at the domestic level lies in using heat and electricity from micro combined heat and power systems (micro-CHP). The main problem with micro-CHP is the high up-front investment costs in comparison with conventional gas-fired boilers.
This study explores the potential cost savings with intelligent control of micro-CHP. Such control effectively utilizes micro-CHP’s inherent flexibility, thereby increasing the economic feasibility of the technology. Intelligent control schemes are designed and model simulations assess the economic benefits of local intelligence in households as well as aggregate intelligence in virtual power plants. The outcomes offer valuable insights into the incentives for investment in micro-CHP units and in the intelligence to control them.
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