The ongoing electrification of how we heat our homes and how we fuel our cars will cause a massive increase in electric energy demand. At the same time more energy is generated by renewable resources such as solar panels. Our current grid is unable to deal with the higher demand on the on hand and the unpredictability of the availability of renewable energy on the other. The researcher aims to utilize the flexibility within the building’s energy management system to optimally use the electric energy from the solar panels, the electric vehicle, the batteries and the heat pump.

One of the key points in the project is that all converters are integrated into one single multi-port power converter as part of the energy management system. This multi-port converter is controlled by an optimization algorithm which will constantly monitor data such as sunlight forecasts, the amount of electricity is required and the price of energy. The aim is to reduce the total cost of energy in order to incentivize prosumers, taking into account li-ion battery degradation and ancillary services such as frequency or voltage regulation.