The Role of Battery Storage in PV-Diesel Microgrid Simulation-Based Analysis

This work aims to contribute to the ongoing research in the electrification solutions offered to the regions which are severely affected by power outages worldwide. On the one hand, it presents the modeling and simulation of a grid-connected PV-Diesel Microgrid. On the other hand, it demonstrates, based on a system analysis, the potential of fuel-saving by introducing a battery storage system that allows for peak shaving and reducing the required generation capacity of the diesel generator. The main components of the systems are firstly modeled in MATLAB, namely a PV plant, a stationary battery storage system (BSS) of a generic capacity, and a diesel generator. Furthermore, a load profile of an institutional building in Gaza-strip, as a representative use-case, is analyzed to highlight the power and energy requirements of the system. Three system configurations are simulated, namely: a diesel Genset only, which represents the baseline configuration, a diesel Genset assisted with a PV plant, and lastly a hybrid PV-Battery-Diesel configuration, where the BSS is used to handle the occasional peak loads. The simulation results give clear insights to decision-makers and stakeholders about the operating costs associated with each configuration as well as the expected CO2 emissions.