Sustainable load scheduling algorithm for stand-alone PV-battery system

Lead acid battery has been commonly use in standalone microgrid due to its robust electrical performance and low cost. However, as the sole storage system, the degradation of batteries tends to be accelerated due to dynamic charging/discharging cycles resulted from highly dynamic renewable energy generation and load profile. In order to prolong the battery cycle life and financial sustainability, a novel load scheduling program is proposed to reduce the dynamicity of the battery charging/discharging cycle by shifting load with demand response approach. The proposed system incorporates PV generation prediction model, load estimation algorithm and battery health cost estimation in order to determine the optimal day-ahead demand response signal. The simulation results demonstrate reduction in both peak-to-average ratio in battery state-of-charge and battery health cost, leading to a prolonged battery lifespan and minimizes the operating cost of standalone PV-based microgrid.