OPTIMIZATION OF AN ENERGY POLYGENERATION SYSTEM FOR THE TR5 BUILDING AT THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF CATALONIA (UPC)-TERRASSA CAMPUS

Abstract

The building sector represents around one third of the energy related to the EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which make it a crucial sector for achieving the EU’s energy and environmental goals. Thus, to boost energy performance of buildings, the EU has established a legislative framework to foster the integration of renewable energy technologies in the buildings. In this sense, bearing in mind the needs of retrofit of the public buildings in Spain, and in particular in Catalunya, this paper proposes the optimization of a polygeneration system for the building TR5 of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya located in Terrassa. This is carried out through a Mixed Integer Linear Programing (MILP) model to optimize from the economic point of view the energy system under different energy prices scenarios. The results show the feasibility of the PV technology in all scenarios, whereas other technologies such as solar thermal collectors, energy storage, among others, were not feasible in any scenario. On the other hand, the optimal configuration changes according to the energy prices but also the environmental impact. In particular, higher natural gas prices leads to reduce the GHG emissions whereas higher electricity prices not necessarily. Keywords: Polygeneration systems; optimization; energy efficiency; buildings.