Preliminary quantitative evaluation of residential virtual energy storage using power sensing

This work aims to quantify virtual energy storage (VES) monetary cost-savings potential for residential homes. It is part of an effort to develop smart systems (using power sensors, and simple computation and control mechanisms) to assist individuals in making decisions about energy use that will save energy and, consequently, electricity costs. To make a home its own storage system, we need to shrewdly employ the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to harness the house's thermal storage capabilities by methods such as preheating or precooling the house during periods when energy is less expensive so that this heat or coolness will be retained during higher-cost periods. This paper presents results from preliminary experimental exploration of the costs and benefits of this approach on a real residential microgrid testbed, through data collection with power sensors and control of the HVAC for the VES case. We also develop a cost-savings model that applies to load management in general to compare (based on the data) VES and battery energy storage (BES) - currently the more traditional and widely-advocated-for approach to energy storage for load management Results indicate better cost-effectiveness of VES (by an order of magnitude in some cases) compared to BES.