A Small-Scale Prototype for the Optimization of PV Generation and Battery Storage through the Use of a Building Energy Management System

The use of renewable energy sources to cover, at least partially, the energy demand of residential, industrial and commercial buildings is fundamental for sustainability and CO₂ emission reduction. In this respect, the so-called energy management systems play a key role to maximize the amount of energy produced by local, renewable-based generators that are consumed by the same buildings where such generators are installed. In this paper, we present a prototype consisting of a photovoltaic (PV) generator and a battery energy storage system (BESS), properly coordinated by a building energy management system (BEMS), designed to handle the power flows of a shopping mall, while taking into account the BESS state of charge and the actual power demand. The control strategy implemented in the BEMS is one key point of the work. Some preliminary experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed approach.