Experimental assessment of a BESS control system for reducing fuel consumption and maintenance cost of diesel-hybrid mini-grids

A battery energy storage system (BESS) was conceived to reduce fuel consumption and maintenance costs of diesel-hybrid mini-grids [1]. It operates in 2 different modes. In the genset support mode, it balances the load and maintains a unity PF for genset, and it supplies/absorbs power to force the genset to operate in a desired power range. In the grid forming mode, it provides a balanced voltage to a possibly highly unbalanced load, common in small autonomous power systems (mini-grids). In this paper, this theoretical study is taken to the next level by implementing it in the laboratory to assess its performance.