Multi-party energy management for smart building cluster with PV systems using automatic demand response

• An innovative energy management framework for operating the smart building cluster is proposed.
• Optimization model of smart buildings is developed based on the non-cooperative game theory.
• The process for solving the Nash equilibrium is modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem.
• The proposed method is able to reduce the total cost of smart buildings by 4.6% and improve the load factor of the smart building cluster from 0.68 to 0.76.

In a smart grid environment, the joint operation of multiple Smart Buildings (SBs) could be more advantageous than the independent operation of each individual SB. In order to enable the joint operation, the concept of Smart Building Cluster (SBC) is introduced in this paper. An energy management framework for achieving optimal operations of SBC is proposed, and the information exchange processes between the Smart Building Cluster Operator (SBCO) and the participating SBs are described. A multi-party energy management model for SBC based on non-cooperative game theory is proposed, considering building-integrated PV systems and automatic demand response (ADR), with all participating SBs viewed as players in the game. The existence of Nash equilibrium in the game model is proved, and the process for solving the Nash equilibrium strategy is modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem (MOP). Furthermore, the solution method and procedure based on an iterative method are proposed. Finally, via a practical example, the effectiveness of the model is verified. The proposed method is able to reduce the total cost of the SBs by 4.6% and improve the load factor of the SBC from 0.68 to 0.76 when the proportion of shiftable loads is 25% in the total load profile.