Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER_CAM)
Project Summary
| Full Title: |
Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER_CAM) |
| Project ID: |
141 |
| Principal Investigator: |
Chris Marnay |
| Brief Description: |
DER-CAM is an economic model of customer distributed energy resources adoption implemented in the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) optimization software. |
Purpose
Minimize the cost of operating on-site generation and combined heat and power (CHP) systems, either for individual customer sites or a microgrid
Performer
| Principal Investigator: |
Chris Marnay |
| Organization: | Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab or LBNL) |
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| Address: | 1 Cyclotron Rd MS 90R4000
Berkeley, CA 94720-8136 |
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| Telephone: | 510-486-7028 |
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| Email: | C_Marnay@lbl.gov |
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| Additional Performers: |
Subcontractors; Afzal Siddiqui, LBNL; Michael Stadler, LBNL
|
Contact (If Other Than PI)
Period of Performance
Project Description
| Type of Project: |
Model |
| Category: |
Cross-Cutting, Energy Infrastructure, Environmental |
| Objectives: |
Determine the lowest-cost combination of distributed generation technologies that a specific customer can install; determine the appropriate level of installed capacity of these technologies that minimizes cost; determine how the installed capacity should be operated so as to minimize the total customer energy bill; assess the likely market diffusion of new or improved distributed generation, CHP, and cooling, technology; assess the environmental consequences of alternative adoption patterns, or the implied control costs of meeting emissions constraints |
| Technologies Modeled: |
Reciprocating engines; microturbines; fuel cells; proton exchange membranes (PEMs); molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs); phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs); heat exchangers; heat storage; electrical storage; lead acid batteries; nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries; flow batteries; absorption cooling; adsorption cooling |
| User Inputs: |
The customer’s end-use load profiles (typically for space heat, hot water, gas only, cooling, and electricity only); the customer’s default electricity tariff, natural gas prices, and other relevant price data; the capital, operating and maintenance (O&M), and fuel costs of the various available technologies, together with the interest rate on customer investment; the basic physical characteristics of alternative generating, heat recovery and cooling technologies, including the thermal-electric ratio that determines how much residual heat is available as a function of generator electric output |
| Methodology/Approach: |
Mixed integer linear programming |
| Hardware/Software Requirements: |
GAMS 22; GAMS Input Output Manager; WindowsXP; Intel Pentium IV or AMD Processor with 2000 MHz frequency or more, respectively Centrino Mobile Processor with 1500MHz frequency; minimum of 512Mb RAM; minimum Screen Resolution 1024*768 |
| User Interface: |
GAMS Input Output Manager |
| Outputs: |
Minimum cost or emissions or maximum efficiency equipment combinations; societal technology diffusion; fuel use; emissions |
| Assumptions Inherent in Model: |
Cost minimizing, efficiency maximizing, or carbon minimizing behavior but subject to minimum acceptable payback; linear equipment costs |
| Sensitivity Studies Facilitated: |
Fuel prices; equipment performance; building loads; competing technologies, e.g. energy efficiency investments |
Products/Deliverables
Date Last Updated: 12/18/2006
