Analysis of the Effect of Parameter Variation on a Dynamic Cost Function for Distributed Energy Resources: A DER-CAM Case Study

This paper investigates the effect of selected strategies of distributed energy resources (DER) on an energy cost function that optimizes the distribution of distributed energy resources for a mid-rise apartment building. This is achieved through comparing parameter optimization results for both a high-level and low-level optimizer, respectively. The optimization process is carried out using the following approach: (1) a two-objective function is constructed with one objective function similar to that of the high-level optimizer (DER-CAM); (2) an evolutionary algorithm (EA) with modified selection capability is used to optimize the two-objective function problem in (1) for four selected cases of DER utilization that were previously optimized in DER-CAM; and (3) the optimization results of the low-level optimizer are compared with the outcome of DER-CAM optimization for the four selected cases. This is done to establish the capability of DER-CAM as an effective tool for optimal distributed energy resource allocation. Results obtained reveal the effect of load shifting and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels with power exporting capability on the optimization of the cost function. The Pareto-based MOEA approach has also proved to be effective in observing the interactions between objective function parameters. Mean inverted generational distance (MIGD) values obtained over 10 runs for each of the four cases that were considered show that a DER combination of PV panel, battery storage, heat pump, and load shifting outperforms the other strategies in 70% of the total simulation runs.