Community Energy Management Systems: A more cost-effective option to manage the electricity distribution grid?

1. Based on current literature, identify problems (and solutions to these problems) which are expected to occur as household energy consumption becomes increasingly electrified. Special attention must be paid towards electric vehicles, rooftop solar panels and heat pumps.
2. Develop/improve an electricity grid model which stochastically simulates the effects of interacting household electric load patterns with load-balancing technologies, such as battery energy storage systems and demand side management.
3. Using this model, simulate various cases to determine under which circumstances load balancing at a community-level is more (cost) effective than alternative solutions (grid reinforcement and/or household batteries).
4. Solutions will be further investigated to determine any constraints imposed by current laws and regulations. The results of this research will be applied in a collaborative research project.

The existing electricity distribution grid has insufficient capacity to handle increasing residential loads resulting from increases in electric vehicle, heat pump and solar panel adoption rates. This research will analyse different possible solutions, to determine whether it is more cost effective to focus on community-level solutions, household-level solutions, or to simply reinforce the existing infrastructure.