Unlocking the residential energy flexibility for off-grid PV: coordinated dispatch of source-load-storage based on potential game

Along with the higher penetration of off-grid PV in the building sector, the bottleneck of temporal mismatch between PV output and building loads as well as the dynamic interaction among source-load-storage significantly adds up to the difficulties of collaborative optimization. To address this, a novel coordinated dispatch model based on the potential game theory is specifically designed for a zero-carbon residential building with off-grid PV. The core of the model lies in formulating the off-grid PV, flexible loads with HVAC flexibility calibrated via field measurements, and the storage battery as interactive game players, by distinctively integrating the indoor thermal comfort as a key component into the utility function of the demand-side player within the game framework. This design enables the explicit trade-off among thermal comfort, economic costs and renewable energy utilization during the strategic interaction, converging to a Nash equilibrium that unlocks the building's energy flexibility. Results showed that, while maintaining the indoor thermal comfort, the self-sufficiency rate of PV was improved to 34.1%-55.5%, the peak loads were lowered down by 19.4%-24.2%, and the power costs were cut by 28.3%-46.1%. Furthermore, the required battery capacity could be reduced by 31.3%, with its upper utilization limit decreasing by 18.75%-31.25% even under low solar radiation. The study also quantitatively discusses the synergy between this scheduling method and building envelope insulations, highlighting its broader applicability in residential buildings with different structures.