ComEMS4Build: Comfort-Oriented Energy Management System for Residential Buildings using Hydrogen for Seasonal Storage

TL;DR

This work presents ComEMS4Build, a forecast-free fuzzy-logic EMS for residential buildings that orchestrates PV, BESS, and H2 storage (with FC and HP) and TBM as thermal flexibility, aiming to reduce H2 sizing while preserving occupant comfort. It benchmarks ComEMS4Build against an optimal MPC (with forecasts) and a minimal RBC across 12 winter weeks in Germany, evaluating thermal comfort, energy costs, HESS utilization, and grid interactions. The results show ComEMS4Build largely matches MPC in comfort and improves grid interactions and HESS utilization relative to RBC, though MPC remains more cost-efficient when forecasts are accurate; RBC tends to deplete H2 storage earlier due to its aggressive FC use. The study demonstrates that a forecast-free, model-free EMS can deliver robust performance with fewer inputs, enabling practical deployment, while highlighting trade-offs in FC cycling, heat recovery, and DHW satisfaction that warrant further refinement and economic analysis for microgrid-scale adoption.

Abstract

Integrating flexible loads and storage systems into the residential sector contributes to the alignment of volatile renewable generation with demand. Besides batteries serving as a short-term storage solution, residential buildings can benefit from a Hydrogen (H2) storage system, allowing seasonal shifting of renewable energy. However, as the initial costs of H2 systems are high, coupling a Fuel Cell (FC) with a Heat Pump (HP) can contribute to the size reduction of the H2 system. The present study develops a Comfort-Oriented Energy Management System for Residential Buildings (ComEMS4Build) comprising Photovoltaics (PV), Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), and H2 storage, where FC and HP are envisioned as complementary technologies. The fuzzy-logic-based ComEMS4Build is designed and evaluated over a period of 12 weeks in winter for a family household building in Germany using a semi-synthetic modeling approach. The Rule-Based Control (RBC), which serves as a lower benchmark, is a scheduler designed to require minimal inputs for operation. The Model Predictive Control (MPC) is intended as a cost-optimal benchmark with an ideal forecast. The results show that ComEMS4Build, similar to MPC, does not violate the thermal comfort of occupants in 10 out of 12 weeks, while RBC has a slightly higher median discomfort of 0.68 Kh. The ComEMS4Build increases the weekly electricity costs by 12.06 EUR compared to MPC, while RBC increases the weekly costs by 30.14 EUR. The ComEMS4Build improves the Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) utilization and energy exchange with the main grid compared to the RBC. However, when it comes to the FC operation, the RBC has an advantage, as it reduces the toggling counts by 3.48% and working hours by 7.59% compared to MPC...

Figures (14)

• Figure 1: The residential building with HESS, PV, HP, DHW storage and TBM as an additional thermal storage.
• Figure 2: The flowcharts for ComEMS4Build (left) and RBC (right) showing the information flow and data required for operation.
• Figure 3: Input data snapshot for February 2023.
• Figure 4: Example of a three-day performance comparison of all three controllers, taken from the twelve-week simulation carried out.
• Figure 5: Example of a three-day performance comparison of all three controllers with high PV generation and troughs of up to 0.23 €/kWh in electricity tariffs.