Optimization with Energy Management of PV Battery Stand-Alone Systems over Life Cycle

Photovoltaic (PV) installations are typically optimized on the basis of simplified considerations that draw design conclusions from insolation data and heavily-averaged consumption trends (e.g. using daily averages) and/or standard consumption profiles. The analysis proposed herein begins with the premise of working on averaged time series data using much narrower time intervals (e.g. 1-hour series). Design of both the installed PV power and storage capacity (lead-acid battery technology for purposes of this article, yet the underlying principle remains applicable to any other technology) is optimized by incorporating accumulator cycling aging. The energy management strategy that serves, among other things, to reduce cycling costs (sizable in the case of lead-acid batteries [1]) can in turn be optimized according to this design procedure. The solid correlation between design and energy management functions is also taken into account herein. The objectives (optimization criteria) considered in this approach are not limited to the classical notion of financial costs, but instead encompass environmental energy costs as well (Global Energy Requirement, or GER), in addition to the rate of consumer satisfaction (load shedding has been envisaged).