Smart Zero-energy Buildings and Communities for Smart Grids

8Integration of Energy Storage in Smart Communities and Smart Grids

Smart grids are one of the major challenges of the energy sector for both the energy demand and energy supply of cities and communities (Kolokotsa et al. 2016b; Colak et al. 2016). A transition from traditional electricity grids where energy is produced centrally and distributed to the various energy consumers is necessary to exploit distributed energy sources, power loads, and storage components. Traditional grids lack flexibility in power generation and load operation, thus forming a semi-autonomous entity with limited energy management capabilities (Erlinghagen and Markard 2012). Moreover, a smart micro-grid can operate connected to the main grid or in island mode.

The deployment of smart grids asks for innovative techniques to predict and control electricity requests to the grid, in order to reduce peaks, improve grid stability, and optimize electricity costs (Lund et al. 2012). Smart grids can even contain millions of smart meters, which produce a huge amount of data concerning energy consumption. In addition to these time series data, additional correlated information about energy sources, weather, occupancy, building performance, and so on can be provided (Javed et al. 2012).

The actions toward a fast implementation of the smart grid has increased recently due to policy and regulatory initiatives that promote smart grid reliability, integration of renewables, demand response, and energy storage (Moslehi ...