Energy management for islanded buildings integrating renewables and diesel generators

Ongoing developments in building energy management systems (BEMS) receive a huge consideration by both academia and industry. Specifically, the interest around integrating islanded buildings with renewable energy sources (RES) in addition to the conventionally used diesel generators has grown recently. Obviously, various “Microgrids” are already utilized all over the world for different purposes. In this respect, this work proposes an online Energy Management System (EMS) of an islanded hybrid PV-Battery-Diesel microgrid, while keeping efficient operation conditions of each microgrid component. Indeed, the proposed EMS gives the priority of power supply to RES, however, the battery is essential to assist as a backup power source in case of power outage and to ensure stable operation of the whole system. The Diesel Generator Set (GenSET) is operated in case of low state of charge (SOC) and insufficient generation by RES. A case study of a hospital complex in the Middle East region is chosen to conduct this work. Different operation scenarios with respect to the fuel consumption are considered and the results are listed. Simulation results indicate significant fuel savings in addition to reduction in the total operation time of the diesel GenSET.