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Abstract—This paper proposes a novel framework suitable electricity price. Increased load at those hours may impact
for bilevel optimization in a system of commercial buildings voltage performance in the distribution grid. In [9], it is
integrated to smart distribution grid. The proposed optimization demonstrated that uncontrolled penetration of electric vehicle
framework consists of comprehensive mathematical models of
commercial buildings and underlying distribution grid, their loads violates the voltage standards set by the ANSI. Thus,
operational constraints, and a bilevel solution approach which it is advisable that DSM should be employed considering
is based on the information exchange between the two levels. the operational requirements of customers as well as the
The proposed framework benefits both entities involved in electric power grid. In DSM activities, distribution utilities are
the building-to-grid (B2G) system, i.e., the operations of the more concerned about feeder loss minimization, load factor
buildings and the distribution grid. The framework achieves two
distinct objectives: increased load penetration by maximizing improvement, reactive power optimization, etc., as part of
the distribution system load factor and reduced energy cost their operational objectives [10]–[15]. On the other hand, the
for the buildings. This study also proposes a novel B2G index, objectives of DSM activities at customer level are mainly
which is based on building’s energy cost and nodal load factor, focused on comfort maximization and cost minimization. This
and represents a metric of combined optimal operations of illustrates that the objective set by the grid and customers in
the commercial buildings and distribution grid. The usefulness
of the proposed framework is demonstrated in a B2G system DSM activities could often be conflicting.
that consists of several commercial buildings connected to a In [16], [17], promising results are obtained from DSM in
33-node distribution test feeder, where the building parameters reducing customer’s energy price. In [16], pre-cooling and pre-
are obtained from actual measurements at an office building at floating is performed to reduce total electricity cost. In [17],
Michigan Technological University. optimization is performed with a trade-off between cost and
user comfort. In [8], HAN is employed to reshape the demand
Index Terms—Building to grid optimization, smart building, profile based on the impact on distribution transformer. In
smart grid, HVAC, model predictive control, hierarchical opti-
DSM models proposed in [8], [16], [17], customers obtain
mization, demand response, load shedding.
benefits by shifting the loads. The mathematical models used
in [8], [16], [17] consider peak power information from
I. INTRODUCTION distribution grid as one of the constraints of optimization but
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tribution test feeder. The results of case studies are presented Function g is approximated as a linear function of Tkr (t),
in Section V, and the main conclusions from this work are Qrad int r
i (t) and Q̇i (t). Thus, the disturbance is w = aTk (t) +
rad int
included in Section VI. bQi (t) + cQ̇i (t).
Heat transfer of each wall and room equations and distur-
bance form the system dynamics of building are represented
II. M ATHEMATICAL M ODELING
in state-space form by:
A. Building Components Thermal Modeling ẋ(t) = f (x(t), u(t), w(t), t)
Convection, radiation and conduction are the main heat y(t) = Cx(t) (4)
transfer ways in buildings which are time varying. We use n
where x(t) ∈ R is the state vector. State vector includes
a common building modeling approach known as nodal ap-
nodes’ temperature in the nodal network. y(t) ∈ Rm is
proach to model building’s construction and materials with
the output vector of the system presenting thermal zones’
electrical components such as resistors, capacitors, and current
temperature. Thermal zone is a section of a building that is
sources [2], [40]. For this purpose, buildings are considered
required to meet certain comfort level. In this paper, each room
as graphs containing walls and rooms as nodes. p represents
is considered as a thermal zone. The input vector which is the
number of nodes, q out of p nodes are rooms, and the
air mass flow rate and its temperature for each zone is shown
remaining p − q nodes are walls. i = 1, . . . , q numbers are
with u(t) ∈ Rl×m . l is the number of inputs to each thermal
assigned to each room. The following equation determines the
zone (i.e., air mass flow and supply air temperature). C is the
heat transfer of the walls [40]:
output matrix with proper dimension to return output, y(t),
w X Tkr − Ti,jw
dTi,j 1 from states.
= w ( wi,j + ri,j γi,j Aw rad
i,j Qi,j ) (1)
dt Ci,j w Rk
In our testbed, HVAC air mass flow rate is directly measured
k∈N i,j
using a vent mass flow meter. Density, heat capacity, trasns-
where Ti,jw
is the temperature of the wall between room i and missivity and etc. are determined using standard engineering
room j, Ci,jw
is the heat capacity of the wall between room i thermodynamics tables. There are unknown (e.g., wall heat
and j, Tkr is the temperature of adjacent rooms to wall wi,j . capacitance and outside air convection coefficient) that are
Thermal resistance between the center-line of wall (node wi,j ) determined for the testbed using Unscented Kalman Filter
w (UKF) techniques presented in [2].
and the neighboring node k is denoted with Rk i,j . γi,j and
Aw Equation (4) describes the nonlinear time evolution of the
i,j are radiation heat absorption coefficient and area of wall
between room i and j, respectively. Wall identifier is shown system. The supply air temperature (i.e., input to the system)
by ri,j which is equal to 0 for internal walls, and equal to is multiplied by the air mass flow, which is the other time-
1 for peripheral walls. Qrad varying known input to the model. Given that the air mass
i,j represents the radiative heat flux
density on wall (i, j) while Ni,j w
is the set of all neighboring flow rate is constant during day, we can consider the linearized
nodes to node wi,j . form of the system. We use Euler’s discretization method to
The following equation governs the temperature of the ith discretize the state update equation (4) for controller design.
room [40]: The state-space model is given by:
w(t) = g(Tkr (t), Qrad int PtB = Pth + Ptc + Ptf + Pto (6b)
i (t), Q̇i (t)) (3)
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where n represents nodes and nb represents nodes where In Equations (14a, 14b, 14c, & 14d) overbar and underbar
buildings are connected. denote the maximum and minimum value for variable, respec-
Equality constraints of the grid optimization model include tively. Equation (14a) ensures that the voltage limits are within
component modeling and voltage/current balance equations. the standard set by ANSI. Equations (14b) and (14c) are the
Distribution feeders, transformers, and voltage regulators with limits on tap positions in transformer and capacitor banks,
load tap changers (LTCs) are modeled using ABCD param- which take integer numbers only.
eters as described in [41]. Constant power, constant current,
and constant impedance loads are considered at each node. E. Distribution Grid Optimization Model-II
Mathematically, these equality constraints can be represented Objective in this optimization model is to maximize the
as: system load factor. Mathematically, this objective function is
m
Vtn a bm Vtn+1 written as [42], [43]:
= m (11a)
Itsen,m c dm Itres,m (P
tmax
)
t=1 Pt
max (15)
tmax |Pt |∞
Itres,m−1 = Itsen,m + ItZ,n + ItI,n
where, Pt total active power load connected to the distribu-
+ ItP,n + ItC,n + Itvar,n (11b)
tion grid at hour t is calculated as:
Z n ItC,n = Vtn Ctapnt (11c) X n o X
Pt = ℜ Vtn (ItZ,n + ItI,n + ItP,n )∗ + Ptvar,nb
where m represents feeder branches, Itres,m−1 and Itsen,m n nb
are receiving and sending end currents on branch m − 1 and (16)
m, respectively. For branches with LTC, am = 1+∆s·T 1
, Equations (11), (12), and (14) represent the equality and
tapm
t
−1
bj = cj = 0 and dj = aj where ∆s represents voltage inequality constraints. Load factor in (15) is improved by
change (p.u.) with one step change of transformer tap position controlling LTC and switched capacitor banks. For grid power
and T tapm n flow analysis and distribution grid optimization model-II,
t represents LTC tap positions, Z is the impedance
of single capacitor in a bank at nominal power and voltage. Ptvar,nb = PtB,nb , which is obtained from (6).
ItP,n , ItI,n , ItZ,n , and ItC,n are the currents from the constant
power, constant current, constant impedance loads, and ca- F. B2G Index
pacitor banks connected at node n, respectively. Vtn represents In the hierarchical approach to solve the proposed optimiza-
nodal voltage and Ctapnt represents number of capacitor banks tion models, the lower level is concerned about the electricity
switched on. costs in buildings, while the upper level is concerned in maxi-
Base loads in the distribution feeder are modeled using sum mizing the system load factor. A worthwhile B2G optimization
of constant power, constant current, and constant impedance should maintain an appropriate compromise between low elec-
loads. Building loads are additional power to the grid and tricity cost in buildings and high load factor in the distribution
modeled as constant power load. Building load current in system. To account for this, we define a new B2G index (IB2G )
terms of building power can be calculated using: to assess the performance of the proposed B2G optimization
framework, which allows reduction in the electricity costs and
Ptvar,nb
Vtnb (Itvar,nb )∗ = ∠φ (12) improvement of system load factor starting at the building level
cosφ with the use of nodal load factor. The B2G index is defined
where φ is the power factor angle of the building load. An as:
additional equation is needed to ensure that building load
−1
Lf
z }| {
penetration is allowed fairly in the distribution grid. Thus, a B,nb
tmax Pt (17)
fairness index (ItF ) is defined to ensure fair distribution of
IB2G = α (Ite ΩT ) + β Ptmax B,nb∞
building loads as:
t=1 Pt
P var,nb
ItF = t E,nb (13) where α and β are the weight factors for energy price (Ie ΩT )
Pt
and nodal load factor (Lf ), respectively. The smaller the IB2G
where, PtE,nb is the base load in nodes nb. index, the better the performance for the B2G optimization.
Inequality constraints of the distribution grid optimization The ratio of weight factors, α to β, determines the importance
model include limits of voltage as per ANSI standards, limits of energy cost compared to the system load factor. α and β
on capacitor and LTC positions, limits on ItF , and other limits are the design parameters in the B2G optimization problem
such as feeder capacity, transformer capacity, etc. Mathemat- and can be adjusted by the building and grid operators,
ically, the inequality constraints can be written as, depending on whether the benefits from the building side or the
benefits from the grid side are more desirable. Thus, selection
V ≤ Vtn ≤ V (14a)
n
of proper values of α and β for optimal operation system
0≤ Ctapnt ≤ Ctap , ∀ Ctapnt ∈I (14b) requires sensitivity analysis of the building-grid system under
T tap ≤ T tapmt ≤ T tap, ∀ T tapm
t ∈I (14c) consideration.
F F In the case studies, IB2G is used as an alternative objective
0 ≤ It ≤ I (14d) function to (8a) in building optimization models. Note that
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(8a) does not account for grid’s objective; while the proposed
B2G index considers the grid’s objective in the building
optimization model with consideration of the nodal load factor.
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building at MTU is used to compute the share of energy Weather forecast information available from a local weather
consumption of major loads in the testbed. station is used. The constraints on the room temperature are
set based on ASHRAE standards [48]. Other building and grid
parameters used in the simulation can be found in [20] and
[11], respectively.
The optimization results are compared with the non-
optimized rule-based controller (RBC). We use same ∆t = 1
hour time step to have a fair comparison among B2G optimiz-
ers in this study. Given the slow thermal behavior of the testbed
building and the type of demand response applications, one
hour time step is sufficient to capture the dynamics. Depending
on building type, a shorter time step may be required.
For the case study, five buildings each having twenty zones
are connected at node 2 of the distribution grid, similar
three buildings are connected at node 10, four buildings are
connected at node 18, and seven buildings are connected
at node 31. In this paper, the optimization results are only
presented for the buildings at node #10 (see Fig. 5). The nodal
load factor is presented for the node #10 as a node representing
Fig. 5. Schematic of the testbed with a ground-source heat-pump. Two B2G system. In addition, system level load factors are also
temperature sensors are used to measure the average room air temperature. determined for the distribution grid system to compare the
operation of different B2G optimizers.
As mentioned in the Section I, HVAC systems account for a
B. Distribution Test Feeder large amount of load in buildings. Therefore, in this study, we
focus on controlling the HVAC load of the buildings which is
A standard single phase 12.66 kV, 33-node distribution
considered to be dispatchable. Other loads in buildings includ-
feeder [11] is considered for the case studies. The standard test
ing lighting, appliances, and base loads in the distribution grid
system is modified by adding a regulator and capacitor banks
are considered to be non-dispatchable. For MPC simulation, a
to account for the control equipment available in distribution
prediction horizon of N = 24 is used with time step of 1 hour.
grids.
Here, we introduce three different optimization methods and
As shown in Fig. 5, a transformer is equipped with voltage
compare them with the RBC.
regulator (connected between 10th and 11th nodes in the test
systems), which maintains the voltage at node 11 within ±10%
of the nominal value. A 32-step regulator is considered, and a A. Unoptimized Rule Based Control
single tap change represents voltage of 0.00625 p.u. Capacitor In this approach, when temperature goes below the lower-
banks are connected at 8th and 16th nodes of the feeder and bound temperature, the HVAC RBC keeps the heat-pump
are modeled as constant impedance load capable of delivering compressor on for the duration of ∆t. In the next time step,
reactive power to the grid. Identical five units of capacitors the RBC checks the room temperature again and determines
with 10 kVAr each are considered, which are represented as whether the room temperature is within the comfort bounds.
switched capacitors with tap positions from 0 to 5. The monthly electricity cost of the building and energy con-
It is assumed that smart buildings are connected at four sumption along with other B2G metrics are listed in TABLE I.
arbitrary nodes, i.e., nodes 2, 10, 18, and 31. Each building
is considered to have twenty identical zones with similar load B. Building/Grid side Optimizations
profiles and with the same temperature requirements.
The results of uncoordinated building side and grid side
optimization are presented here. Fig. 6 shows the results of a
V. R ESULTS building MPC controller using building optimization model-
The building model is implemented in MATLABr and I. The main objective in the building-side optimization is to
YALMIP [45] toolbox is used to provide a symbolic syntax minimize building electricity costs. Fig. 6 (a) demonstrates the
to formulate the problem and interfaces with the optimization temperature profile of the room, and Fig. 6 (b) shows load dis-
solver. Distribution system optimization model is developed in tribution of buildings connected to node #10 including lighting
GAMS [46]. The accuracy of the building model is validated load, appliances (computers, elevators, refrigerators, etc.) and
using actual measurements collected from an office building buildings’ HVAC load. Building load distribution is based on
at Michigan Tech [2]. The distribution grid model is validated simulation results carried out for Lakeshore Center building at
using the results in [11]. Michigan Tech using Carrier HAP software. Fig. 6(c) shows
This work considers the weather forecast and energy price load distribution on node #10. Fig. 6(d) illustrates the building
as the inputs required for the building and grid optimization electricity load and the maximum feasible load for node #10
models. Thus, electricity dynamic pricing available from Mid- which is obtained from distribution optimization model-I block
continent Independent System Operator (MISO) is used [47]. shown in Fig. 4. In Fig. 6(d), the importance of grid-wise
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TABLE I
P ERFORMANCE OF FOUR DIFFERENT B2G OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES , COMPARED TO THE UNOPTIMIZED (RBC) CASE STUDY.
Optimization Monthly Bldg. Monthly Bldg. elec. Node #10 System (grid) IB2G Bldg. cost Bldg. energy
type elec. cost [$] consumption [kW h] load factor [-] load factor [-] index [-] saving* [%] saving* [%]
One day ahead prediction (including weather, dynamic pricing, comfort bounds, etc.)
Unoptimized (Base case) 935 368.1 0.41 0.72 10.50 0 0
Optimized (Bldg Unidirectional) 693 310.6 0.44 0.81 9.2 26 16
Optimized (Grid Unidirectional) 909 341.4 0.84 0.86 8.7 3 7
Optimized (Bidirectional) 698 310.1 0.46 0.84 8.8 25 17
Optimized (Using IB2G ) 707 305.2 0.67 0.84 6.9 24 17
* Percentage x−x0
saving is calculated by x0
× 100, where x0 is the energy consumption/cost for the unoptimized (base) case.
TABLE II
P ERFORMANCE OF TWO DIFFERENT B2G REAL - TIME OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES , COMPARED TO THE UNOPTIMIZED (RBC) CASE STUDY.
Optimization Monthly Bldg. Monthly Bldg. elec. Node #10 System (grid) IB2G Bldg. cost Bldg. energy
type elec. cost [$] consumption [kW h] load factor [-] load factor [-] index [-] saving* [%] saving* [%]
Real-time prediction (including weather, dynamic pricing, comfort bounds, etc.)
Optimized (Bidirectional) 752 308.9 0.47 0.81 9.8 20 16
Optimized (Using IB2G ) 758 308.6 0.59 0.83 7.9 19 16
* Percentage x−x0
saving is calculated by x0
× 100, where x0 is the energy consumption/cost for the unoptimized (base) case.
150
RBC, building-side optimization results in 26% cost saving HVAC
load (kW)
Lighting
and 16% energy saving. 100
Appliances
Total
If the objective is to maximize load factor in the distribution 50
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(a)
Temperature (oC)
2 400
Supply temp.
1.5 300 25
20
1 200
0 5 10 15 20 24
(b)
0.5 100 150
Buildings load
Load (kW)
Maximum feasible load for buildings
0 100
0
1 5 10 15 20 24
Time (hour)
50
Fig. 7. Building-side Optimization: dynamic pricing versus hourly cost for
the building. 0 5 10 15 20 24
Time (hour)
(a) Fig. 9. Bidirectional optimization based on IB2G index: (a) Control input
Temperature (oC)
and resulting temperature profile, (b) Building load versus maximum feasible
30 Comfort bound
Room temp.
load.
Supply temp.
25
20
E. Impact on Voltage Performance
Permissible voltage range, as specified in ANSI C84.1, is
0 5 10 15 20 24
one of the standards to maintain power quality in distribution
(b)
150 feeders. Fig. 10(a) shows the voltage at few selected nodes for
Buildings load
unidirectional optimization (building-side) which are violated
Load (kW)
0.94
the building energy costs. As a result, IB2G is better in the 0.98 Voltage lower bound Node #15 Node #17
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available for the next hour in TABLE II. Simulations for two Winter
(a)
proposed methods, bidirectional using (8a) and bidirectional 20 Fall
Temperature ( °C)
Spring
using IB2G , are carried out to demonstrate the effect of 10
prediction horizon on the cost saving and IB2G index. Results
0
show that B2G metrics deteriorate by reducing the prediction
horizon but the proposed algorithm still offers benefits for -10
both grid and buildings. Using the real-time B2G optimization,
-20
building electricity cost drops up to 20% and building load 1 5 10 15 20 24
Time (hour)
factor increases over 0.1 compared to the baseline unoptimized (b)
case. 400 MI
Dynamic pricing
IL
300 MN
($/MWh)
G. Impact of Dynamic Pricing and Seasonal Weather 200
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to each building controllers. for the low energy prices, the impact of low energy price on
Computational challenges associated with large practical peak demand can be eliminated to a certain extent.
size grid can be reduced by using methods of convexifica-
tion [50], distributed approaches [14], and heuristic approaches VI. C ONCLUSION
[10]. The solution time desired for the proposed models This study develops a bidirectional B2G optimization frame-
depend on the B2G applications sought. For example, voltage work using an experimentally validated building thermal
regulation needs to be tackle in a few minutes, and load model and a mathematical model for the distribution grid. The
shifting in the order of hours [51]. For the type of B2G building optimization model is based on disturbance and heat
applications proposed in this work, solution time of 5 minutes transfer phenomena, and its model parameters are obtained
and a coarse time interval of one hour suffice. from actual measurements collected from an office building
at Michigan Technological University. The distribution grid
I. Benefits, Challenges, and Limitations model is comprised of modeling of typical distribution sys-
tem components including feeders, transformers, and control
This work provides a generic mathematical framework to equipment such as capacitor banks and transformer load tap
optimally coordinate building loads and grid level assets, changers. In the proposed bidirectional optimization model,
which is useful for near-term energy usage planning and/or the objective is to minimize energy cost for the demand side
near-real time dispatch of building loads. This opens up and to maximize load factor for the grid. To account for
opportunities to deploy multiple distributed building loads for conflicting interests of the BEMS and distribution operators in
grid level applications such as demand response, load fol- the bidirectional optimization, a novel B2G index is developed
lowing, and regulation services. The framework ensures that, based on building energy cost and nodal load factor. Based
in the demand dispatch process, the operational constraints on the provided case studies, it can be concluded that the
and interests of the grid level and customer level energy developed bidirectional optimization framework can reduce
management activities are honored; thus providing benefits to commercial buildings’ monthly electricity costs by 25% in
both the entities involved. Winter, compared to the unoptimized rule-based control of
The case studies clearly demonstrated the benefits of the the building loads, while improving the system load factor.
proposed framework to the building and grid operations. However, the savings obtained in energy price and improve-
However, the major challenges in large scale deployment of ment on system load factor greatly depend on various factors
B2G integration are: (1) infrastructural challenges including including energy price, flexibility of commercial building
interoperability of tools at building and customer levels, band- loads, customers’ preferences, available control equipment in a
width limitation, compatibility of system to handle different distribution grid, accuracy/availability of weather forecast and
data with different resolution and with different communica- dynamic pricing prediction, etc. Nevertheless, the developed
tion standards, and (2) mechanism barriers including lack of bidirectional optimization framework certainly offers benefits
financial models for costumer motivation, accurate predication to the customers and the utilities in B2G integration.
of weather and energy price, computational issues for grid op-
timization for real-time applications in practical-sized systems, ACKNOWLEDGMENT
and scale-ability of the control and optimization algorithms Special thanks to Mr. Gregory Kaurala from MTU Energy
[51]. Management Office for help in collecting the building exper-
Use of dynamic pricing (day ahead or real-time) at small imental data.
residential and commercial buildings has already begun [52],
[53]. With the widespread implementation of dynamic pricing R EFERENCES
for small customers, and with energy management systems
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