Real-time battery management algorithm for peak demand shaving in small energy communities

One of the solutions to tackle the problems of high peak demand and grid instability due to high photovoltaic (PV) power penetration is to deploy a battery storage system. This paper presents a real-time battery management algorithm (BMA) for peak demand shaving in small energy communities with grid-connected PV systems. The BMA aims to control the charge/discharge of the community battery storage using measurement of the instantaneous power consumption of the community. Historical data records of community daily energy consumption and available renewable energy are taken into account to manage the charge/discharge of the battery. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the BMA which is able to reduce the peak energy consumption by 35%, increase PV self-consumption by 47% and reduce transmission line losses during the peak period by 56% when compared to a PV system without the battery storage.