Can People Flow Enhance the Shared Energy Facility Management?

The effective management of shared resources within energy communities poses a significant challenge, particularly when balancing renewable energy generation and fluctuating demand. This paper introduces a novel optimization framework that integrates people flow data, modeled using the Social Force Model (SFM), with energy management strategies to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of energy communities. By combining SFM with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm III (NSGA-III), the framework addresses multi-objective optimization problems, including minimizing energy costs, reducing user waiting times, and maximizing renewable energy utilization. The study employs synthesized data to simulate an energy community with shared facilities such as electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, communal kitchens, and laundry rooms. Results demonstrate the frameworks ability to align energy generation with resource demand, reducing peak loads and improving user satisfaction. The optimization model effectively incorporates real-time behavioral dynamics, showcasing significant improvements in renewable energy utilization---reaching up to 88% for EV charging stations---and cost reductions across various scenarios. This research pioneers the integration of people flow modeling into energy optimization, providing a robust tool for managing the complexities of energy communities.