Distributed energy resources (DERs)

including photovoltaic (PV) systems

small wind turbines

and energy storage systems (ESSs) are being increasingly installed in many residential units and the industry sector at large. DER installations in apartment buildings

however

pose a more complex issue particularly in the context of property ownership and the distribution of DR benefits. In this paper

a novel aggregator service is proposed to provide centralized management services for residents and DER asset owners in apartment buildings. The proposed service consists of a business model for billing and benefits distribution

and a model predictive control (MPC) control algorithm for managing and optimizing DER operations. Both physical and communication structures are proposed to ensure the implementation of such aggregator services for buildings. Three billing tariffs

i.e.

flat rate

time-of-use (TOU)

and real time pricing (RTP) are compared by way of case studies. The results indicate that the proposed aggregator service is compatible with the business model. It is shown to offer good performance in load shifting

bill savings

and energy trading of DERs. Overall

the aggregator service is expected to provide benefits in reducing the pay back periods of the investment.