A Review of DC Microgrid Energy Management Systems Dedicated to Residential Applications

Abstract

The fast depletion of fossil fuels and the growing awareness of the need for environmental protection have led us to the energy crisis. Positive development has been achieved since the last decade by the collective effort of scientists. In this regard, renewable energy sources (RES) are being deployed in the power system to meet the energy demand. The microgrid concept (AC, DC) is introduced, in which distributed energy resources (DERs), the energy storage system (ESS) and loads are interconnected. DC microgrids are appreciated due to their high efficiency and reliability performance. Despite its significant growth, the DC microgrid is still relatively novel in terms of grid architecture and control systems. In this context, an energy management system (EMS) is essential for the optimal use of DERs in secure, reliable, and intelligent ways. Therefore, this paper strives to shed light on DC microgrid architecture, control structure, and EMS. With an extensive literature survey on EMSs’ role, different methods and strategies related to microgrid energy management are covered in this article. More attention is centered on the EMS for DC microgrids in terms of size and cost optimization. A very concise analysis of multiple optimization methods and techniques has been presented exclusively for residential applications.

Recent Techniques Used in Home Energy Management Systems: A Review

“…Another review is presented in [118] regarding power generation systems for microgrids for residential applications. Greater attention is paid to DC microgrids.…”

Evolutionary Maximization of Energy Amount Harvested by Means of Panel of Thermoelectric Modules

“…As was mentioned, non-isolated topology of applied simple DC/DC converter (Figure 7) allows to transfer low electric power to load even below oscillation threshold too, i.e., under undesired temperature conditions and this circuit assures autonomous start of boost operation just after respective power occurrence. Additionally, evolutionary management of electric energy generated [37,38] may be considered for the future enhancement of panel too, and this should be very helpful to optimize power supplying distribution between the active cooling system and output load. The implementation of this modification to evolutionary optimization system is reasonable and could additionally increase the efficiency of electric energy harvesting.…”

A Centralized Shifted Power Control Scheme for Isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converter in Standalone DC Distribution System

“…In a small DC distribution system, low voltage energy sources are typically connected in parallel using an isolated DC-DC converter to deal with the local power demand. To stabilize the disturbances caused by changes in the loads and generation, it is necessary to integrate the energy management system (EMS) [2]. EMS is considered as a centralized controller to regulate the interfacing energy source converter in a coordinated manner.…”