A Comprehensive Building Load Optimization Method from Utility Rate Structure Perspective with Renewables and Energy Storage

To accommodate the changes in the nature and pattern of electricity consumption with the available resources, utility companies have introduced a variety of rate structures over the years. This paper develops a comprehensive optimization method that addresses the diversity of utility rate structures of buildings principally commercial buildings. It includes a general set of constraints that can be used for any system with a building load, a renewable source, and a battery energy storage system (BESS). A cost function is formulated for each type of rate structure that can be exercised by a utility on a commercial building. A novel algorithm is developed to apply the optimization model and generate the desired optimal outputs by using the appropriate cost function. The results for several building loads and rate structure types were obtained and compared. The results exhibit that adding BESS is more effective for buildings with lower load factor and Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) rate structures in comparison to the buildings with flat energy rates. These results can help a customer with deciding on the different rate structure options and resource planning of their renewable generation and energy storage.