Improving the design of hybrid systems using detailed simulation

Current stringent environmental legislations have driven energy system designers towards the challenge of providing systems with high renewable energy penetration without sacrificing reliability. System designs that provide the best answer to this challenge often require the combination of different technologies (so-called hybrid systems) . The aim of this project is to observe and exemplify how the design of a hybrid energy system benefits significantly from the utilisation of detailed simulation tools, as they can cope with the volatility of renewable energy supplies and the mixing of different quality (temperature) thermal sources with a thermal buffer, common in many hybrid systems. For such, I created a new hybrid system design methodology and applied it to three case studies where the original hybrid energy system design was produced by a simplified energy analysis tool . Additionally, a performance analysis interface was also produced, reducing the time required to process and analyse all the time series data produced after each detailed simulation. By applying the detailed simulation methodology to the first of the case studies, a typical residential heat pump system, it was possible to observe the impact that the control strategy adopted by the user will have in the system reliability and efficiency, factor currently ignored by the British heat pump design standards. The outcome from applying detailed simulation to the case study two was an improved hybrid biomass and heat pump system design. The new system, unlike the original design, is able to achieve the performance targets defined by the customer . Additionally, the produced design proved to be flexible enough to meet possible future changes in these targets. The performance of the hybrid system originally designed for the case study tree, a hybrid heat pump and solar water heating system, was highly sensitive to changes in the load profile. The outcome from remodelling and improving such system through detailed simulation was an energy system design that reduced by 13% the amount of CO2 emission emitted and also is able to maintain constant performance levels even with considerable changes in the load profile.Current stringent environmental legislations have driven energy system designers towards the challenge of providing systems with high renewable energy penetration without sacrificing reliability. System designs that provide the best answer to this challenge often require the combination of different technologies (so-called hybrid systems) . The aim of this project is to observe and exemplify how the design of a hybrid energy system benefits significantly from the utilisation of detailed simulation tools, as they can cope with the volatility of renewable energy supplies and the mixing of different quality (temperature) thermal sources with a thermal buffer, common in many hybrid systems. For such, I created a new hybrid system design methodology and applied it to three case studies where the original hybrid energy system design was produced by a simplified energy analysis tool . Additionally, a performance analysis interface was also produced, reducing the time required to process and analyse all the time series data produced after each detailed simulation. By applying the detailed simulation methodology to the first of the case studies, a typical residential heat pump system, it was possible to observe the impact that the control strategy adopted by the user will have in the system reliability and efficiency, factor currently ignored by the British heat pump design standards. The outcome from applying detailed simulation to the case study two was an improved hybrid biomass and heat pump system design. The new system, unlike the original design, is able to achieve the performance targets defined by the customer . Additionally, the produced design proved to be flexible enough to meet possible future changes in these targets. The performance of the hybrid system originally designed for the case study tree, a hybrid heat pump and solar water heating system, was highly sensitive to changes in the load profile. The outcome from remodelling and improving such system through detailed simulation was an energy system design that reduced by 13% the amount of CO2 emission emitted and also is able to maintain constant performance levels even with considerable changes in the load profile