Building- and District-Level Resilience With Solar PV and Storage: Insights From Swedish Prosumers
Abstract
To ensure energy efficiency and resilience, building prosumers must maintain energy supply during disruptions while minimizing environmental impact. This study examines the resilience of three solar-applied building prosumers: a single-family home, a multi-family building, and a commercial property in Västerås, Sweden. It evaluates (1) the impact of PV and battery integration and load prioritization on outage resilience, ( 2 ) seasonal variations in resilience for individual buildings in high-latitude region, and ( 3 ) district-level performance to assess aggregation effects on system resilience. One-day power outages are simulated for each season, with loads classified as critical or non-critical. System performance is measured using load coverage rate, which quantifies the robustness of building systems in withstanding disruptions. The results show that load prioritization significantly enhances resilience, particularly for multi-family buildings during heating season, ensuring occupant habitability and survivability. The role of PV and battery sizing in improving resilience varies by season, with battery capacity playing a key role during winter outages. The benefits of energy sharing at the district level are limited, but can be advantageous for multi-family buildings with a lower PV-to-load ratio. This study provides insights into the role of PV and storage systems as resilience strategies for buildings and districts in cold-climate regions.
Keywords
renewable energy, solar, buildings, prosumers, urban energy systems, resilience