Exploiting Data Centres and Local Energy Communities Synergies for Market Participation

Abstract

The evolving energy landscape has propelled energy communities to the forefront of modern energy management. However, existing research has yet to explore the potential synergies between data centres and energy communities, necessitating an assessment on their collective capabilities for cost efficiency, waste heat optimisation, and market participation. This paper presents a mixed integer linear programming model to assess the collaborative performance of energy communities, data centres and energy markets. The evaluation focuses on the efficient use of waste heat and the flexibility of job scheduling while minimising system energy costs and maintaining quality of service requirements for data centres. Our results, based on realistic profiles of an energy community and a data centre, showcase significant benefits of these synergies, with a 38% reduction in operating costs and an 87% decrease in heat demand.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: General overview of the proposed EOA module for the assessment of the synergies of LECs, DtCs and Energy Markets.
• Figure 2: General overview of the Heat Recovery System. An evaporator draws heat $q_t^{DtC}$ from the , while an exchanger and a posterior heat upgrading system transfer the heat $q_{h,t}^{HE}$ to the set of households $h \in \Omega_h$.
• Figure 3: General overview of the proposed EOA for the joint operation of LECs and DtCs. Solid lines represent electric energy flows, while dashed lines represent heat transfer.
• Figure 4: Energy (a) and Heat (b) balance of the EOA of the LEC. Negative values represent energy imports while positive values are exports.
• Figure 5: Energy consumption (a) and delay matrix (b) for a day of operation with low computational requirements. Vertical axis represents the pausing time $t$, while the horizontal axis representing the re-starting time $t'$.