Sizing and Modelling of a Standalone PV System with Battery Management System for a Typical Household in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are proving to be a promising solution to off-grid electrification in Kenya due to the abundance of the solar resource in the country. As the output of PV systems is not constant owing to the intermittency of the solar resource, standalone PV systems are usually equipped with energy storage systems, mostly battery storage systems (BSS). BSS are faced with the problem of the short lifetime of the batteries due to various factors including excessive discharge. In this paper, a standalone PV system is sized and modelled for a typical household in Nairobi, Kenya using PSCAD/EMTDC. A battery management system (BMS) is designed for the standalone PV system using Proteus Professional. The BMS takes charge of managing the state of charge (SOC) of the battery and supplies the various home appliances accordingly. Simulation results show the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed BMS.