Research on the optimal operation of a prosumer micro energy network centred on data centres

Abstract As the share of intermittent and fluctuating renewable energy sources in the power system continues to increase, demand‐side resources must be utilized to enhance the real‐time balance of power generation and supply. Data centres, as typical energy‐intensive loads with bidirectional supply and demand characteristics, are crucial demand‐side resources. However, their operation is complex, making reliable regulation difficult. This paper establishes a refined process‐level load model for data centres by considering the temporal and spatial shifting characteristics of computational loads, effectively reflecting the intricate interactions between these loads and servers. Based on this model, a micro‐energy network is constructed that integrates renewable energy access and waste heat recovery from the data centre. This network also participates in carbon emission trading and green electricity certificate trading markets, applying an interaction mechanism. By considering data interaction and power sharing among multiple micro‐energy networks, the alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm is used to solve the system‐distributed optimization problem in two stages. This approach results in an optimal energy management scheme that simultaneously reduces total operation costs and carbon emissions.