Control of Smart Buildings and Utility-Scale Batteries Enabling 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy*

Wind power is a clean and sustainable source of electricity, but its intermittent nature creates challenges for its grid integration. Utility-scale batteries are a popular and effective solution to make wind power dispatchable, however, batteries are expensive and increase the overall cost of operation. In this paper, we propose utilizing the flexibility in the consumption of smart buildings to reduce the size of the utility-scale batteries needed for the dispatchability of wind energy. A method based on stochastic optimization is proposed to compute the dispatch plan required to participate in the day-ahead energy market. A stochastic model predictive controller is proposed for the control of the buildings and batteries to track the dispatch plan in real-time. Simulations are carried out with realistic building models and real weather, wind power production, and forecast data. Results demonstrate that utilizing the flexibility of building thermodynamics can significantly reduce the size (and usage) of the required battery for making the wind power production dispatchable.