An IGDT-Based Energy Management System for Local Energy Communities Considering Phase-Change Thermal Energy Storage

Local energy communities (LECs) facilitate energy distribution, supply, consumption, storage, and trading for the communities and their members. This paper proposes an energy management system (EMS) for optimal heat and power scheduling in LECs. A novel model for the phase-change thermal energy storage (TES) which is applicable in mixed integer linear problems (MILP), is introduced. Furthermore, a risk-averse and risk-seeker EMS is developed that incorporates the integration of TES to optimize electricity and heat scheduling in LECs. The developed EMS doesn't require probability distribution functions of predicted data which makes it valuable in cases with high levels of uncertainties or lack of sufficient historical data. To validate the performance of the proposed TES model, real time studies are conducted on an industrial TES provided by Azelio company. Likewise, the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed EMS are evaluated on a real LEC at Chalmers University of Technology campus, Gothenburg, Sweden.