Evaluation of the reduction in CO2emissions by applying Micro-Grid to home energy supply system

Dispersed generators such as wind power systems, photovoltaic systems, and cogeneration systems are expected to mitigate the environmental burden of energy consumption, and their installation has been promoted recently. Micro-Grid is focused on as a method to solve some problems in a commercial electric power line when installing a large number of dispersed generators, and some demonstrative research on Micro-Grid for large-scale systems is being carried out now. Also, small cogeneration systems for houses, such as gas engines and fuel cells, are expected to improve CO2 emissions. However, if the power and heat demand of a family are relatively small or are unbalanced, the cogeneration system does not operate effectively. The authors have studied the application of Micro-Grid for home energy supply, and have developed a control system to solve this problem. The system achieves a reduction of CO2 emissions and energy costs by sharing electric power and heat among some houses with cogeneration systems. This paper presents an outline of the newly developed system, and in particular describes the effect of the reduction in CO2 emissions compared with a conventional energy supply method, and the case in which dispersed generators are installed in some houses and operate independently. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 170(3): 19–27, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20879