Virtual Grid Allocation for Multi-Unit Building Energy Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Owners of multi-unit residential buildings cannot effectively sell the energy produced by energy producing assets like solar panels, as it is partially consumed by the building and common areas, limiting the realization of the asset's benefits.
Innovation Solution
A virtual grid system that tracks energy production and usage at individual units within a multi-unit building, allowing for the allocation of energy production benefits to each unit based on consumption patterns, using a server to manage energy distribution and cost allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If energy producing assets are installed to meet building demand, then energy self-sufficiency is improved, but the ability to sell excess energy to the grid deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the multi-unit building into individual units, each with separate energy production and consumption tracking. This allows the building to aggregate energy production from common assets while allocating benefits to individual units, enabling participation in grid energy sales programs that require unit-level accountability.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual grid server acts as an intermediary between the energy producing assets, individual units, and the utility grid. It tracks and allocates energy production and consumption, manages energy cost allocations, and enables the building to participate in grid energy sales programs while maintaining internal energy accounting.
2Device complexity
If energy is shared across multiple units, then system complexity is reduced, but the precision of energy allocation and billing deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual grid server provides multiple functions including tracking energy production, monitoring consumption, allocating energy benefits, calculating cost allocations, and generating reports. This multi-functional approach achieves precise energy allocation without requiring separate physical infrastructure for each function, maintaining system simplicity while improving measurement precision.
3Measurement precision
If real-time tracking is implemented for each unit, then energy allocation accuracy is improved, but data processing requirements and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system combines energy production tracking, consumption monitoring, allocation calculations, and billing management into a single virtual grid server platform. This consolidation achieves real-time tracking and accurate allocation across all units while avoiding the complexity of multiple separate systems, as the server handles all data processing functions in an integrated manner.
Data Source
AI summary
A virtual grid system is provided that enables allocation of energy produced by an energy producing asset to individual units of a multi-unit building. The system tracks the amount of electrical energy produced by the energy producing asset and also tracks an amount of electrical energy used by each individual unit. The system compares energy production information including pairs of an amount of energy produced and a corresponding time interval during which the amount of energy was produced to energy usage information including pairs of an amount of energy used and a corresponding time interval during which the amount of energy was used. The system allocates an amount of energy produced during each time interval to the individual units based on the amount of energy consumed by each respective individual unit during the time intervals. The system also calculates an energy cost allocation for each individual unit.