Co-Optimization of Distributed Energy Resources Under Time-of-Use Pricing Frame

Distributed energy resources (DERs) have been considered as a promising solution due to the benefits on efficiency and environmental sides. However, despite the rapid development of distributed energy resources and technologies, the share of distributed energy generation is still small in comparison to that of traditional generation. Time-of-use (TOU) pricing can be an important incentive strategy to encourage the penetration of distributed energy resources. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization considering the time-of-use pricing impacts is proposed to determine the optimal configuration and capacity of distributed energy resources involving different technologies, including solar photovoltaic (PV), solar thermal collector (STC), combined heating and power system (CHP), and integrated energy storage (ES). The distributed energy resources are designed to satisfy the electric and thermal load of commercial buildings (large hotels and medium offices) partially or entirely. The proposed multi-objective optimization is utilized to configure the optimal combination of distributed energy technologies as well as the system capacity to reduce both the cost and environmental impact of the system in different locations. Results show that the proposed optimization method can achieve a trade-off between system cost and environmental impact based on the existing time-of-use pricing structure.