A heuristic search approach for sizing battery storage of a neighbourhood including nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB)

With the changes introduced by the transition towards sustainable energy supply, major concerns like energy efficiency and system resilience can be handled by integrating adequate energy storage with renewable energy sources to realize net-zero energy in the neighbourhoods. In this paper, the neighbourhood surrounding VU medical center and university campus in Amsterdam, is selected as a case study to understand the impact of battery storage and photovoltaic generation in achieving the goal of energy neutrality. An optimization method is developed to identify the optimal size of battery storage by minimizing the net import energy from the grid. The proposed algorithm consists of two stages. The first stage uses mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to find the minimum cost associated with net import energy from the grid and the associated cost of a particular battery. The second stage applies heuristic search approach to identify the optimal size of the battery, which contributes to the most economical dispatch. The simulation results of the case study validate the proposed approach.