skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Assessment of Distributed Generation Potential in JapaneseBuildings

Conference ·
OSTI ID:861412

To meet growing energy demands, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and on-site generation coupled with effective utilization of exhaust heat will all be required. Additional benefit can be achieved by integrating these distributed technologies into distributed energy resource (DER) systems (or microgrids). This research investigates a method of choosing economically optimal DER, expanding on prior studies at the Berkeley Lab using the DER design optimization program, the Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM). DER-CAM finds the optimal combination of installed equipment from available DER technologies, given prevailing utility tariffs, site electrical and thermal loads, and a menu of available equipment. It provides a global optimization, albeit idealized, that shows how the site energy loads can be served at minimum cost by selection and operation of on-site generation, heat recovery, and cooling. Five prototype Japanese commercial buildings are examined and DER-CAM applied to select the economically optimal DER system for each. The five building types are office, hospital, hotel, retail, and sports facility. Based on the optimization results, energy and emission reductions are evaluated. Furthermore, a Japan-U.S. comparison study of policy, technology, and utility tariffs relevant to DER installation is presented. Significant decreases in fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and energy costs were seen in the DER-CAM results. Savings were most noticeable in the sports facility (a very favourable CHP site), followed by the hospital, hotel, and office building.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency andRenewable Energy. Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for TechnologyDevelopment. Office of the Distributed Energy Program; California EnergyCommission , Japan Kyushu Industrial Technology Center
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
861412
Report Number(s):
LBNL-57978; R&D Project: 6767CA; BnR: EO0101050; TRN: US200601%%854
Resource Relation:
Conference: ECEEE 2005 Summer Study, Mandelieu, Cote d'Azur,France, 30 May-4 June 2005
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English