Energy and power quality measurement for electrical distribution in AC and DC microgrid buildings

• Published in: Applied energy 2022-02, Vol.308, p.118308, Article 118308
• Main Authors: Gerber, Daniel L., Ghatpande, Omkar A., Nazir, Moazzam, Heredia, Willy G. Bernal, Feng, Wei, Brown, Richard E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Buildings; DC microgrids; Energy; Measurement and verification; Power quality
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118308

Today’s selection of DC microgrid buildings features a diverse set of electrical topologies and turnkey solutions, each with specific design trade-offs and optimizations. Designers desperately need standardized metrics and procedures for measurement and verification (M&V) to analyze and compare the advantages of each DC solution to traditional AC building networks. This work develops M&V procedures for quantifying and comparing the energy efficiency and power quality in buildings. To calculate full-building efficiency, this work introduces the measurement-informed modeling method, a procedure that develops and refines a building’s energy model with metered data. To quantify power quality, this work defines a new voltage quality index that applies to both AC and DC buildings. This article describes the equipment, instrumentation, and operation necessary to calculate the efficiency and power quality. It then demonstrates these methods with a set of field tests. These M&V procedures can ultimately be used to compare and improve the efficiency and power quality of various DC topologies. •New simple but comprehensive metrics for electrical efficiency and power quality.•New method to calculate a building’s electrical efficiency from metered data.•Develops the voltage quality index (VQI), which works for AC and DC buildings.•Guidelines for easy and affordable measurement of efficiency and power quality.