Smart Energy Management Strategy for Microgrids Powered by Heterogeneous Energy Sources and Electric Vehicles’ Storage

Abstract

The rapid growths of power demand and renewable resources have led to numerous challenges. Constructing more resilient microgrids (MGs) provides an opportunity to avoid dependency on the main grid. This article proposes an innovative Energy Management Strategy (EMS) for microgrids that uses non-conventional energy sources such as solar power, wind power, and the storage of electric vehicles (EVs). Numerous studies have been published on MG EMSs using storage; however, in real-time scenarios, predominant factors limit their straightforward implementation. In this article, an attempt is made to address key aspects of EV storage exploitation to support MGEMSs. Minimizing the total MG energy cost is the key objective, considering EV battery longevity and technical limitations. The proposed EMS was implemented in three layers: Optimal Storage Distribution (OSD), Optimal Power Usage (OPU), and EV Selection (EVS). A novel probabilistic approach was implemented in the EVS process (using a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC)) to minimize battery degradation. Various case studies were analyzed in a grid-connected MG by implementing the proposed EMS.

Keywords

• microgrids (MG)
• energy management strategy (EMS)
• renewable energy sources (RES)
• electric vehicles (EV)
• optimal storage distribution (OSD)
• optimal power usage (OPU)