Impact on energy saving under energy interchanges among buildings concerning demand profiles

In order to reduce energy consumption, the installation of combined heat and power (CHP) has been promoted. However, when the heat to power ratio of CHP and the energy demand do not match, performance of CHP is depreciated. As one of the solutions to improve performance of the CHP and to reduce the energy consumption, energy interchanges have attracted attention and gradually increased in importance in the commercial sector. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of the difference between demand profiles in buildings employing power and heat interchanges on energy saving. Specifically, we formulated the optimal planning problem of building energy systems by Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) from the viewpoint of energy consumption minimization. The analysis was applied to three model areas with different demand profiles by changing the component ratio of each building in a city with the same total floor area. The main results showed that the energy reduction effects of three model areas with different demand profiles were due to power and heat interchanges. We also found that employing power and heat interchanges increased both the installed capacity of CHPs in buildings and the contributing ratio of CHPs for electricity demand.