Energy Management in PV Based Microgrids Designed for the Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Luis Fernando Grisales-Noreña, Carlos Andrés Ramos-Paja, Daniel Gonzalez-Montoya, Gerardo Alcalá and Quetzalcoatl Hernandez-Escobedo
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Luis Fernando Grisales-Noreña: Departmento de Mecatrónica y Electromecánica, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín 050015, Colombia
Carlos Andrés Ramos-Paja: Facultad de Minas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín 050041, Colombia
Daniel Gonzalez-Montoya: Departamento de Electrónica y Telecomunicaciones, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín 050015, Colombia
Gerardo Alcalá: Centro de Investigación en Recursos Energéticos y Sustentables, Universidad Veracruzana, Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz 96535, Mexico
Quetzalcoatl Hernandez-Escobedo: Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Juriquilla, UNAM, Queretaro 76230, Mexico

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: Stand-alone Electrical microgrids (MGs) require power management strategies to extend the life-time of their devices and to guarantee the global power balance of non-critical loads such as lighting of small sections of an university campus or individual air conditioning systems. This paper proposes an energy management strategy (EMS) for an isolated DC microgrid formed by a photovoltaic system (PVS), an energy storage system (battery), and a noncritical load. This configuration enables the photovoltaic system to control the power generation and ensures that the storage element does not exceed the safe limits of the state of charge. To control the generation of the photovoltaic system, two operating modes based on the perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm are implemented. The first one performs a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) action, while the second one regulates the power generated by the PVS to match the load requirement (power demand tracking, PDT). The management strategy also considers different operating states for ensuring the battery safety: normal operation, overcharge (at the maximum state of charge), and bulk charge (at the minimum state of charge); in those states the disconnection/connection of both the battery and the load is also considered. The main contribution of this work is to design and test a control strategy for an EMS aimed at regulating a standalone microgrid based on a PV system and an energy storage device. This solution is validated using detailed MG circuital simulations, which includes the PV source model (single-diode model), lithium-ion battery model, constant power load model and the DC/DC converters equations; moreover, realistic power generation and demand from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, located at Medellín-Colombia, are considered. The results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of the energy management strategy, and in this way, enable to extend the battery lifetime and reduce the costs associated to the maintenance and disconnection of the microgrid in educational buildings or other applications focused on this type of DC microgrid.

Keywords: DC microgrid; energy management system; photovoltaic (PV) system; energy storage system; constant power load; power generation control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1219-:d:318001

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