Smart energy management controller for real-time monitoring and automated control of solar-plus-storage systems

A main energy transition challenge is to ensure seamless distributed energy resource (DER) integration in modern electrical networks, through advanced energy management systems (EMS). Advanced EMS can optimize the charging and discharging strategies of energy storage systems by considering grid conditions, electricity prices, and forecasts, reducing costs and increasing stability. This work proposes an optimized EMS controller to monitor in real-time and control the operation of a solar-plus-storage system. The proposed EMS optimizes the power flow in accordance with energy storage constraints, energy demand, and electricity costs. The MATLAB Simulink tool was used with historical and forecasted PV and load data from the nanogrid of the University of Cyprus to compare the performance of a rule-based controller against the optimized EMS controller. For the developed EMS controller, the linear programming optimization method was used with the aim of minimizing the total cost of electricity. The results showed the ability of the controller to optimize the power flows between the solar-plus-storage system and the grid, achieving cost savings up to 23% when compared to the rule-based controller. This was achieved by strategically scheduling the battery charging and discharging processes based on electricity prices, load, and PV production forecasts.