Implementation of an energy management system for real-time power flow control in behind the meter energy communities applications

Abstract

Energy Management Systems (EMS) can be used for the energy communities (EC) application to reduce energy costing by controlling energy consumption. This thesis work presents the implementation of the proposed EMS algorithm that manages power flow through the AC microgrid (MG) system composed of PV power system, energy storage, load, and utility grid where the MG system op erates in the grid-connected mode for EC application. All the relevant theoretical and conceptual backgrounds, as well as the formulas, are presented in the first part of the report. The detailed step-by-step design procedures for the proposed EMS algorithm, PV system, and energy storage system (ESS) are discussed briefly. The proposed EMS algorithm aims to reduce energy costing for the customer by managing the charging/discharging period of the ESS and selling the additional PV power to the utility grid. The proposed algorithm finds the optimal power flow through the system considering PV power generation, load demand, electricity tariff profile, and solar irradiance forecasting as the input constraints. The solar radiance and load demand forecasting are used to avoid charging the ESS from the utility grid when it is possible to charge the battery from next day solar power generation. The complete simulation of the AC MG system has b een implemented in MATLAB Simulink® where vector current controller is used to control the p ower flow based on the proposed EMS algorithm. Also, the Stateflow® model is used for the implementation of the proposed EMS algorithm with real-time data. The effectiveness of the proposed EMS is justified based on the energy cost analysis, where the total energy cost is considering the Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the system.