Design and Implementation of a Photovoltaic (PV) Energy Storage System

A deficit in electricity supply is what South Africa is faced with; as its biggest power utility, Eskom is unable to meet its demand. Coupled with power plant breakdowns, the disequilibrium resulted in the utility company resorting to rolling blackouts to avoid a total blackout in the entire Power System. To address this matter, the country is taking steps to transition to other alternative energy sources like solar energy. The solar energy market share in South Africa is increasing and is expected to increase further. Solar uses the sun as its main source of energy. No one pays for the sun; however, it does not shine throughout the day and not equally in all seasons. Meaning; that as environmentally friendly as it is and low (even zero) in cost, electricity production has limitations. This results in a problem of little to zero production during the dark hours. This study aims to bring forth a refined and sustainable solution -a battery energy storage system (BESS). The BESS will act as a solution for storing excess energy when demand increases. This system will be cost-effective, and efficient, long lifespan and high energy density. In due course, it will bring hope to South African citizens while saving the planet for future generations with clean energy. Therefore, the goal of this study was to create a BESS with Lithium Ion batteries to satisfy the load demand while evaluating the effective usage of the excess energy using MATLAB SIMULINK. The results demonstrated that this strategy is a good and more efficient alternative.