Overview of optimal energy management for nanogrids (end-users with renewables and storage)

With the uptake of intermittent renewable generation (namely wind and solar), the battery storage market is now growing and generation in modern power systems is becoming more distributed and behind-the-meter. Utilities are investigating ways to provide incentives to encourage end-users to participate in the overall control of the grid. These developments along with the end-user desire to minimize energy cost, there is a need for automated optimal energy management on the end-user scale. This paper provides an overview of optimal energy management methods suitable for nanogrids. The energy management problem is described for a nanogrid with a grid connection, renewable generation, energy storage, a generator-set, controllable loads and uncontrollable loads. Following, a generalized overview and summary of different techniques for optimal management from a range of literature is presented.