Experimental validation of solar photovoltaic and battery storage-based microgrid energy management system

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to design and implementation of an energy management system for a solar Photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage-based microgrid system. The control architecture of PV, battery, and inverter units are presented here. A rule-based energy management system is proposed by considering some crucial factors such as, battery capacity, economical operation, profit-making, utility billing, efficiency etc. The seamless operation of the microgrid has been achieved for grid-connected and islanded condition. A set of power electronics interfaces, based on various converters and inverters, are used to integrate solar PV and battery storage to the DCbus. Optimal power exchange between the main grid and microgrid unit is ensured, while power balance is achieved in every cases. In addition, Water Cycle algorithm (WCA) is employed for PI parameters optimization rather using conventional trail-error tuning method. The proposed EMS and control scheme are implemented using Festo-LabVolt and real-time Opal-RT interfaces. Experimental results demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed microgrid energy management system under different operating conditions.