Grid-friendly Ground Source Heat Pump Configurations to Reduce the Peak Power Demand of Conventional Electric-Based Heating Systems

Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are one of the most efficient systems that offer a promising reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and energy use in buildings; however, the electrification of buildings' heating and cooling using GSHP is facing two critical challenges: its high initial cost and potential adverse impact on the electrical grid. In this paper, to address these challenges, two novel systems are proposed in which a battery, a water thermal storage tank, and a phase change material (PCM) thermal storage tank are integrated, in different configurations, with a conventional GSHP system. In these systems, the grid electricity during off-peak periods is stored as heat or electricity in the thermal or battery energy storage systems. The stored energy is then used in peak building load conditions to reduce the peak power demand on the grid. New numerical models are developed to quantify the proposed systems' benefits. Furthermore, these newly proposed systems are compared with the conventional systems used in Quebec, Canada, and three previously proposed worldwide systems. Simulations are conducted for different commonly used design practices, including undersized and adequately sized heat pump capacities. The results show that the proposed systems can reduce the peak power demand and total energy requirement of a conventional system by up to 65.4% (9.28 kW) and 67.0% (19,722 kWh), respectively. Furthermore, the proposed systems' borehole length decreases by up to 21.8% (39 m) compared to the conventional GSHP system.