An energy management system design using fuzzy logic control: smoothing the grid power profile of a residential electro-thermal microgrid

Abstract

This work deals with the design of a Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) based Energy Management System (EMS) for smoothing the grid power profile of a grid-connected electro-thermal microgrid. The case study aims to design an Energy Management System (EMS) to reduce the impact on the grid power when renewable energy sources are incorporated to pre-existing grid-connected household appliances. The scenario considers a residential microgrid comprising photovoltaic and wind generators, flat-plate collectors, electric and thermal loads and electrical and thermal energy storage systems and assumes that neither renewable generation nor the electrical and thermal load demands are controllable. The EMS is built through two low-complexity FLC blocks of only 25 rules each. The first one is in charge of smoothing the power profile exchanged with the grid, whereas the second FLC block drives the power of the Electrical Water Heater (EWH). The EMS uses the forecast of the electrical and thermal power balance between generation and consumption to predict the microgrid behavior, for each 15-minute interval, over the next 12 hours. Simulations results, using real one-year measured data show that the proposed EMS design achieves 11.4% reduction of the maximum power absorbed from the grid and an outstanding reduction of the grid power profile ramp-rates when compared with other state-of-the-art studies.