Cooperative Battery Bank-Based Energy Management System for DC Microgrids with Demand-Responsive Energy Sharing

Abstract

The challenges associated with the evolving energy systems call for an intelligent DC energy management system (EMS) crucial for enhanced efficiency, improved reliability, and cooperative energy sharing. This paper presents a strategy of EMS for a DC microgrid with energy-sharing capability through a cooperative battery bank model by employing a SIMULINK/MATLAB simulation. Each nanogrid of the microgrid cluster utilizes an energy flow switching circuit to connect its PV array, DC load, and individual battery unit. The proposed microgrid comprises four nanogrids having individual battery units linked together via switches and a communication link, forming a cooperative bank model. By taking into account the instantaneous PV-load imbalance, the EMS regulates the energy flow at each nanogrid, while allows for energy sharing between nanogrids determined by the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery bank. The simulated results validate the exactness of the presented method. Furthermore, the approach is simple in terms of both the system’s framework and its management, and also extendable to any number of nanogirds’ cluster using an array of switches for the interconnection among them and their batteries.