Renewable Energy Optimization with Centralized and Distributed Generation

We propose optimization strategies for cooperating households with renewable energy generation and storage facilities. We consider two configurations: 1) households with shared access to an energy farm, and 2) households with their own renewable energy generator and storage device. The participants in the second configuration are allowed to exchange energy through the grid. Assuming location and time dependent electricity prices, and parametrized transfer fees, we formulate two optimization problems to minimize the energy cost incurred by the participating households in each configuration. We determine the optimal energy management strategies by solving the corresponding mathematical problems through relaxation and discretization. The proposed energy management strategies are genie-aided, and hence, they can be used to benchmark and devise online algorithms based on forecasting techniques. Finally, numerical results are provided to compare the two configurations.