A real-life application of an efficient energy
management method for a local energy system in
presence of energy storage systems
D. Menniti, A. Pinnarelli. N . Sorrentino, P. Vizza, A. Burgio, G. Brusco, M. Motta
Dept. of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering,
University of Calabria
Rende, Italy
Abstract— In the last years, the use of energy storage systems,
to allow greater renewable sources integration especially for local
energy systems, is significantly increasing. Opportune energy
management methods have to be implemented for an efficient use
of those energy storage systems. In this paper, an efficient energy
management method, proposed by the authors in a previous
paper, is briefly discussed and a real-life application, realized in
the Campus of University of Calabria, is presented. The proposed
energy management method is used in order to reduce power
peaks on the grid, to reduce the energy exchanged with the grid
and the power imbalances.
Keywords— Energy management, nanoGrid, photovoltaic,
storage system.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the last years, with the increase of energy produced by
renewable energy sources (RESs) and the corresponding issues
concerning the electric grid (hereinafter referred to as grid),
there was the necessity of new solutions to optimize the use of
the energy produced from RESs. It needs to solve the related
technical problems on the grid and, at the same time, to
maximize economic revenues for both producers and the so-
called prosumer (producer and consumer at same time) and to
minimize the costs for the consumers.
For this purpose, in literature, several energy management
methods have been proposed: they are utilized to minimize the
exchange of energy with the grid, to reduce the power peaks on
the grid or to reduce power imbalances.
Referring to the economic aspects, power flows from several
RESs could be managed within a micro-grid [1] or among users
belonging to a same local energy system [2-4]. Generally, when
local energy systems are considered, the energy management
method aims to minimize the energy exchange with the grid, in
order to maximize the economic revenues for the sale of energy
produced by renewable plants inside the local energy system and
to minimize the costs for the purchased energy from outside.
In addition, through more efficient energy management
methods, it is possible to reduce the power peaks on the grid,
with the aim to reduce congestion on distribution and
This work was financed by the Italian Ministry of Economic
Development (MISE) and the Ministry of Education, University and Research
(MIUR), through the National Operational Program for Business and
Competitiveness 2014-2020, PON F/050159/01-03/X32.
978-1-5386-5186-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Downloaded on February 13,2023 at 02:56:22 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
transmission lines, to reduce the power imbalances between
expected and measured power profiles and the corresponding
imbalance charges.
In the last years, the role of energy storage systems (ESSs) is
significantly increased. The ESSs, as well known, are useful to
enable greater renewable sources integration considering their
intermittent nature. Their role is to compensate the power flows
for the time lag existing between RES plants production and load
consumption. The ESSs can provide several services, in the
actual and next future scenario of National Electricity Systems,
including load leveling, load following, firm capacity, operating
reserves (regulation, contingency spinning reserve), black-start
and end-use applications (backup power, UPS, power quality).
The ESSs are suitable solution to increase the reliability of
National Electricity System.
To reach the aforementioned functionalities, an ESS has to
be opportunely managed. To face the problems linked to the
uncertainties of RESs, load and market price, in literature,
several ESS energy management methods with different aims
have been presented [4-6].
In [7], the authors propose an energy management method to
make more efficient the use of ESSs both to minimize the energy
exchanged and the power peaks on the grid. Two different
approaches can be used: a real-time and a predictive approach.
The use of the last approach implies the implementation of
opportune PV production and load demand forecast models.
Using the forecast models, illustrated by the authors in [7], the
ESS is opportunely managed. A feature of the implemented
method is its multi-periodicity. Indeed, it can manage the power
flows for more than one day, obtaining better results compared
to the case in which the data of a one day is used. In [8] the
authors utilize the predictive approach through a cloud-based
architecture in a real-life application showing the results.
The real-time approach presumes that the power produced
by RESs and absorbed by loads is measured instantly, in this
way power flows are managed only considering the real-time
state of the system, as consequence the possible subsequent
system conditions are not considered. The numerical results
show that using the predictive approach the energy exchanged
with the grid can be reduced of about 2% while the power peaks
up to 70%; the use of real-time approach instead is strongly
dependent on the current state of the system, Storage State of
Charge, loads power, RES power. Although both methods and
concerning numerical results are reported, in the current paper
the experimental results related to the use of the real-time
approach are reported; the results concerning the predictive
approach are reported in [8].
Differently to other energy management methods proposed
in literature, the proposed one allows the management of ESS in
a very economical way, implementing the optimization software
in an embedded device, with the possibility to configure
different functionalities; such software also uses forecast models
that are implemented using free weather data.
In this paper, starting from the simulation results obtained
using the PV production and the load demand data of a build in
the University of Calabria, experimental tests are carried out
utilizing the real-time approach in a real-life application,
realized in the Campus of the same University.
II. EFFICIENT ENERGY MANAGEMENT METHODS DESCRIPTION
Considering a local energy system, two approaches can be
used to implement an efficient energy management method: a
real-time and a predictive approach. According to the
applications, both approaches have been presented, but only the
real-time approach is utilized and tested.
A. Predictive approach
The implemented predictive approach [7] is used to manage
the power flows between different sources, loads and ESSs; it
can be utilized for more than one day; every day is divided in
more time intervals (t); such time intervals are the same of that
utilized in the forecasting model; in the specific case it is the
hour.
The variables utilized in the model are described below for
the time interval t and the day d: is the load power; is
the power produced by PV system; is the power exchanged
with storage system; is the energy stored in the battery
system. Moreover, and are the minimum and
maximum storage capacity, and are the minimum
and maximum power of the storage system and is the
initial battery state of charge.
The Objective Function (OF) of the method is defined in (1)
and it can have different goals for the energy exchange
optimization:
: min ( ) (1)
with:
= − − (2)
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Between the objectives that the OF can assume, there are the
minimization of exchanged energy with the grid, minimization
of peak power or of the exchanged energy with the grid in a
defined time interval, or other functionalities.
Some of the constraints to which the method is subject are as
follows:
= + ∗ (3)
(4)
≤ ≤
≤ ≤ (5)
= (6)
The equation (2) is utilized to calculate the power exchanged
with the grid ; the constrains (3) to (6) concern the operation
of storage. In (3) the variation of the stored energy (between two
time intervals) is calculated, in (4) the stored energy is limited
between a minimum and maximum value (depending on the
storage capacity); in (5) the storage charge and discharge power
are limited; in (6) the initial state of charge is defined.
Once the load demand and PV production profile forecasts
for each single user are obtained, the difference between the two
profiles is calculated. This difference represents the input of the
method, which solves the OF, taking into account the constraints
concerning the ESS and the load demand. The method returns
the storage power exchange profile and as consequence the
power profile exchanged with the grid.
B. Real time approach
The real-time approach considers the measured power
produced by RESs and the power absorbed by loads; starting
from these two measures, the ESS is managed to inject or absorb
a specific amount of energy, according to a prefixed goal and
considering the system constrains. In particular, the same
equations, utilized in the predictive approach, can be utilized in
the real time approach, only considering real time interval.
To compare the two approaches many tests have been carried
out, considering the test facility of University of Calabria. It is
observed that, although both approaches can be utilized for
different goals, an approach is more powerful than the other one
for a specific goal. In particular, for the minimization of power
imbalances the real-time approach is preferable, vice-versa for
the energy exchange minimization with the grid, the predictive
approach is preferred, while for power peak minimization, both
approaches could be utilized. In the following, two cases are
illustrated: the method considering as goals the minimization of
grid power peak and minimization of power imbalances.
C. Minimization of grid power peak
In this case it is assumed the prosumer have a limited
maximum power equal to _ . This may be due to several
reasons, for example, the prosumer has a contract with the
distribution system operator for reduced power, or the
distribution network is sized for a limited power. In fact, such
type of management allows to reduce the problems concerning
the congestion, or limitations on interface devices; indeed the
loads power or the generation power can be greater than the
contract power or than the electrical capacity of the line, so the
storage system and an opportune management method are
necessary. It is worth to underline that such constrain influences
both power injection and absorption; the energy management
method (both predictive and real time approaches) is completed
with the following equation:
| |≤ _ (7)
The OF (1), anyway, is implemented to minimize the entire
energy exchange with the grid.
In [7] some numerical results show that the power peaks can
be reduced up to 70%.
D. Power imbalances minimization
Let us consider a prosumer with a PV plant and a storage
system. In this case, the storage system operates with the goal
to reduce the power imbalances at the point of delivery (POD).
In this case a real-time approach has to be utilized. So, let
us consider a reference value for the power at the POD, namely
Pr(t) and the corresponding measured power, namely Pm(t); the
imbalance in the time interval  is then:
 while the predictive approach has already been tested in [8].
( ) = ( )− ( ) (8)
Since the storage operates in order to eliminate or mitigate this
imbalance, the power delivered/absorbed by it, namely Pb(t),
fulfils the following equation:
 rated power of 4.5 kW for each one; a storage system (BES) with
( ) = ( ) = ∗  (9)
where  follows  . As stated in (2), the authors assume that
the power delivered/absorbed by the storage during the time
interval  is a constant value.
On the other hand, the choice of Δt1 and Δt2 evidently is a
crucial point; indeed, the lengths of  and  strongly
influence the storage operation and the goodness of the
imbalance compensation as well.
According to the explanations reported above, the proposed
real time approach sets the time periods equal each other,  =
 =  , and it sets the power of the storage as:
0, =0
()=
( − 1) − ( − 1) + ( − 1), >0
where i is an index over time periods.
III. REAL-LIFE APPLICATION UNICAL CAMPUS
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed energy
management method, the real time approach is tested in a real
life application (in the following referred as test facility),
realized in a build of University of Calabria (Unical) Campus,
The test facility, as illustrated in Fig. 1, consists of three DC
nanogrid for Home Application (nGfHA), opportunely
interconnected; two photovoltaic plants (PV and PVNG) with
a capacity of 22 kWh and a Stirling engine µ-CHP plant (SE)
with an electric rated power of 1 kWe and a thermal rated power
of 14 kWt.

Fig. 1 Test facility in Campus of University of Calabria

An nGfHA is a small power DC nanogrid for household where different generation sources can be interconnected, both
application. It is realized through a DC voltage bus (DC-bus) dispatchable and not-dispatchable sources, an inverter for non-

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interruptible loads and storage system. Such system is connected
to the grid using a bidirectional inverter (indicated in the
following as PEI), which is able to absorb or deliver power
according to the needs. Moreover, it can provide ancillary
services to the grid. Each nGfHA is controlled by a DC bus
signaling control logic (DBS) to guarantee safe operation both
in grid-connected that in islanded mode as proposed by the
authors [9]. Thanks to the DBS logic, depending on the voltage
measured on the DC bus, the functions that the nGfHA must
perform are established. Moreover, every nGfHA can receive an
external signal requiring to deliver or absorb a given power. The
principal characteristic of DBS is that the DC bus voltage is the
only information carrier implementing the control strategy in a
decentralized and distributed manner. In this way power flows
can be managed according to the logics described above.
The system set-up is described below: starting from the LV
distribution grid connection, immediately after the energy
counter, we have: a first AC line suppling some no-essential
loads; another AC line to which the PV plant is connected by a
conventional inverter; and other three AC lines to which the
three nanogrids are connected, connect in turn to the common
DC bus. The first one, the Nanogrid 2 (see Figure 1) connects
the PVNG plant, while the other two Nanogrid are: the nanogrid,
named Nanogrid 1, controls the storage system BES and the
inverter which supplies some essential loads; the other nanogrid,
named Nanogrid 3, controls an inverter for other essential loads
and the SE.
The three nGfHAs work independently of each other,
appropriately managing the converters that interface the
different sources and the loads. In order to work independently
of each other, without effective communication between the
different subsystems, the DBS logic is used, regulating the
power flow by measuring the voltage on the common DC bus.
Each nGfHA regulates the voltage on the DC bus to an
appropriate value, according to the PV and µ-CHP production
power or required power by any loads and based on the
availability of storage system (depending on the state of charge)
or if it operates in grid connection or islanded mode.
The three nGfHAs work trying to minimize the amount of
energy absorbed by the grid, maximizing the local use of energy
produced by renewable sources plants.
The Nanogrid 2, which is interfaced both with the PV plant
and the grid, maximize the power produced by the PV plant; the
generated power is delivered to the grid or to the DC bus. The
Nanogrid 1 allows to exchange power with the DC-bus charging
or discharging the storage system and suppling any the essential
loads. At the end, the Nanogrid 3 allows to supply SE for the
start-up and to withdraw the power produced by the same
generator; this energy is then supplied on the DC bus and it is
available for other nanogrids and to feed local both essential and
non-essential loads.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Several tests have been carried out. In the first test, the
production forecast of both PV plants for a specific time is
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carried out; however, this forecast is not equal to the real-time
PV production and for this reason, it is necessary to compensate
this difference by using the BES of Nanogrid-1. The real time
approach is utilized, so the power is measured every second
instantly and it is compensated.
The power imbalance compensation is performed using the
proposed energy management method operating in real-time
approach. So, instantaneously, the power generated by the PV
plants is measured and compared with the expected power, this
difference represents the power that the BES has to exchange
(supplied or stored) in the test facility. The test-facility also
supplies several loads, so the load demand profile forecast has
also to be valuated. Such load profile will be subtracted from the
estimated production profile. It is worth to underline that the
load prediction will be different from the real one also, as
consequence, it could also be a cause of power imbalances.
Therefore, it is necessary to compensate both the power
imbalances due to the real PV production plants and to the real
load demand.
Two tests will be carried out: in the first, there will be a lower
power output than the expected one and a second test in which
there is a power output greater than the expected power. The
power imbalances reduction is carried out using a real-time
approach: every time interval the produced PV power is
measured and it is compared with the forecasted one; from this
difference the power which the storage system have to supply is
obtained.
As case study the day 16 October 2017 is considered, for this
day at 16.00 the forecasted PV power is about 4910 W, the
power absorbed by non-essential loads (named AC-Loads) is
about 300 W and the power absorbed by essential loads (named
AC Critical-Loads) is about 470 W, as consequence the
forecasted power to exchange with the grid is equal to 4140 W.
After that, the power really produced by the PV plants is
equal to 3836 W, while the power actually absorbed by external
AC-Loads is equal to 699 W and the power absorbed by AC
Critical-Loads is equal to 470 W. As consequence, there is a
power about 1480 W to be balanced in real-time; it represents
the possible imbalance measured at the POD, if there was no an
opportune compensation. To reduce such imbalance, the storage
system supplies exactly this power (1477 W) reducing the
imbalances.
In Figure 2 the experimental results are reported as illustrated
by the implemented user-friendly interface: the power
exchanged with the grid, for the three phases, is respectively
equal to 2944 W, 940 W and 246 W, reaching a total power equal
to 4130 W, which is almost equal to the forecasted power. Figure
3 shows the grid voltage and the voltage for critical loads
produced by the Nanogrid 1 and 2 (UPS): it has a frequency
equal to 50 Hz and a RMS value of 230 V. The DC bus voltage
is measured; it is utilized to communicate the different operating
states of the three nanogrid: in the observed case the DC bus
voltage is regulated to 355 V which corresponds to the system
configuration when storage system supplies power. At the end,
the storage current is shown, it can be observed it is about 6.5 A.
 Figure 2 Power imbalance minimization in case of power deficit
Figure 3 Power imbalance reduction test - Acquisition
Similar considerations can be made when a surplus of power
compared to the programmed one is considered; in this case the
BES has to absorb the surplus power. This is possible only if the
state of charge of the storage system is lower than a defined
threshold (equal to 98%).
As further test, it was supposed to have the necessity to
supply a set of loads that absorb an instantaneous power greater
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than that contracted one or in any case greater than that which
the PEI can exchange with the grid. In this test the loads absorb
a power equal to 4500 W, divided respectively into 1290 W of
AC Critical-Loads, 2150 W of home automation loads
(representing other non-essential AC loads), and 1074 W AC-
Loads on the 1st phase. The two PV plants produce a power equal
to 987 W for PVNG and 354 W for every phase for PV; as
consequence on the 1st phase the PV plants produce a power of
1341 W. Each phase has a maximum power limit about 2 kW,
while in the actual case the power grid has to supply a power
equal to 3170 W (see Figure 4). For this reason, in order to avoid
the grid disconnection (due to the contract breach), the BES has
to supply the power difference. In the above illustrated case the
BES has to supply a power equal to 1100 W. Suppling this
power, in addition to supplying the loads, the Nanogrid 2 will
deliver a power to the network of 791 W, while at the POD on
phase 1 a power about 2000 W is absorbed.
This could be managed according the aforementioned two
approaches, the real-time and the predictive one. The use of the
real time approach assumes that the power is measured instantly
and it depends on the current state of the system (as seen by the
reported results), while the utilize of the predictive approach
assumes that load and generation power forecast methods are
utilized and they have a high reliability. So to obtain good
results, both methods have to be utilized.
 Figure 4 Minimization of grid power peak
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, an efficient energy management method,
proposed by the authors in a previous paper, based on a real-time
approach is applied in the real-life application of Unical Campus
test facility. After a brief summary to illustrate the proposed
efficient energy management method, the test-facility is
described and some experimental results are discussed. The
application of proposed real-time approach on a real-life case
emphasizes some feature that the use of only simulation method
does not considers perfectly: such as the BES and power
converter dynamics and the uncertainty of load demand due to
the real behavior of end-users.
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