SUMMARY

Residential consumers have a large potential for utility peak demand reduction. As more homeowners acquire solar generation capacity and electric vehicles, the variable demand on the grid becomes more concerning while the potential for localized load smoothing grows. This thesis models possible outcomes of a small residential microgrid implemented to observe utility-driven demand response events and to provide local power services during outage scenarios. An hourly reduced-order building model and mobile and stationary battery model are used to create a 10-home microgrid which incorporates photovoltaic arrays, electric vehicle discharge to grid, stationary batteries, and house setbacks as strategies to reduce peak consumption and provide energy services during outages. In this study, a microgrid showed a modest decrease in peak demand compared to an equivalent neighborhood with no microgrid connectivity. With severe setbacks and electric vehicle discharge to grid, the microgrid was able to provide power services to all homes during outages of several lengths while an equivalent, non-microgrid neighborhood had only a few houses meet power needs during the outages.