Studies on a Complex Residential Energy System to Ensure the Resilience for Heat and Electric Energy

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive study of a residential energy configuration, which considers both thermal and electrical resilience. The aim of this study is to increase the autonomy of the residential complex and, at the same time, to reduce dependence from the public energy grid. In order to evaluate the photovoltaic system and energy storage system capacity installed that can sustain thermal and electrical energy demand of a house throughout the year, a MATLAB – based numerical model was developed. Using this numerical model, three scenarios were proposed, one that addresses the maximum resilience of the house, the second scenario considered a compromise between energy requirements and photovoltaic energy produced, focusing on payback period and energy cost reduction, and the third scenario of controlled resilience, which focuses on finding the best compromise between investment cost and partial autonomy. The proposed methodology, presented in this paper, allows the comparative evaluation of the three scenarios in terms of photovoltaic system and storage system capacity, energy imported and exported from and to the grid, energy cost reduction and expected investment recovery period. The results highlight that complete annual energy autonomy requires substantial oversizing of both photovoltaic system and energy storage system capacity, especially due to the seasonal mismatch between solar energy production and heating demand. In constrast, optimization scenarios offer a more favorable balance between resilience, energy independence and economic feasibility. The developed method can be used as a practical design tool for sizing residential energy systems while balancing economic performance with the required levels of thermal and electrical resilience.