POSSIBILITIES, OPERATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF SECTORCOUPLED SUPPLY FOR THE FLEXQUARTIER

The project name “FlexQuartier” derives from the words flexible and the German word for neighbourhood. The idea of the project is to investigate the possibilities of futuristic, sustainable neighbourhood theoretically, as well as during planning, construction and operation. The construction of the neighbourhood is currently in progress. The area is about 7.5 ha and consists of a residential part with around 340 accommodation units, a kindergarten, a parking garage and a small amount of commercial space for offices. Additionally, are there three commercial sites and the main distinctive feature the “energy centre”. This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

The neighbourhood generates power with PV systems, that covers more than half the rooftop area. To locally store produced energy is the “energy centre” equipped with a battery storage (700 kW, 700 kWh) and a high-temperature-storage (HTS). The HTS is built of fireclay bricks, which can be heated up to 1200°C. The thermal energy is converted back with a turbine to electrical energy, whereas the remaining lower temperature heat can be stored in the stratified hot water storage system or feed to the district heating. Furthermore, the system contains two different heat pumps to be able to efficiently feed in the district heating from different temperature levels.

The neighbourhood can be aggregated as one prosumer regarding the power utility. The installed devices can therefore be used in several ways, depending on the prioritised goal. To face this ambiguity a management system has been developed, which optimizes the neighbourhood`s electrical supply system using an optimal power flow. Depending on the set constraints for devices and the supply system, as well as the used cost functions different use cases can be performed. The main use cases are peak shaving, increased self consumption, as well as ancillary services like providing operating reserve, voltage control or congestion management. Furthermore, checks the manager with each optimization, that the supply system constraints are kept, which avoids overload, overvoltage or undervoltage events.