Building-integrated microgrid: Advanced local energy management for forthcoming smart power grid communication

In an increasingly constrained context with severe requirements of quality, safety and environment respect, a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) involves advanced local energy management rather than photovoltaic (PV) power permanent grid injection. This paper focus on building-integrated microgrid (BIMG) design and implementation applied to BIPV system with energy storage and smart grid communication. The goal is to propose power balancing strategy with smart grid interaction, aiming at reducing grid peak consumption, avoiding undesirable grid power injection, making full use of local PV production. The energy management is carried out considering grid time-of-use tariffs, grid access limits, storage capacity, load and PV power shedding if necessary. Based on experimental platform, the results show that the system maintains stability and confirm the relevance of the proposed local energy management giving perspectives on better integration of small PV plant in power grid.

► Building-integrated microgrid (BIMG) design applied to building-integrated photovoltaic (PV). ► BIMG system based on PV, storage, and smart grid communication (real time-of-use tariffs). ► Energy management aiming at reducing utility grid peak consumption. ► Power balancing avoids undesirable grid power injection and sheds load power if necessary. ► Experimental results show system stability and relevance of local energy management.