An enhanced energy management system for coordinated energy storage and exchange in grid-connected photovoltaic-based community microgrids

Abstract

This paper introduces an enhanced coordinated community energy management system (CEMS) for a community microgrid. It is designed to optimize residential energy consumption and facilitate energy sharing among smart homes. The proposed solution integrates constrained mixed-integer programming (CMIP) approach along with advanced optimization technique and cooperative game theory-based pricing mechanism to address critical challenges in existing energy management strategies, including load scheduling and efficient peer-to-peer energy trading. The CEMS approach is adopted for grid-connected community power systems that incorporate local energy sources such as photovoltaic and battery storage systems. This solution is implemented under a time-of-use dynamic pricing model for energy transfer from the main grid to the community peers, a modified mid-market pricing mechanism for the P2P energy exchange, and feed-in tariff for energy transfer from the community peers to the main grid. Besides, seagull optimization algorithm is applied to relax the CMIP problem to get the optimal rational solution of the scheduling problem which is subjected to a rounding process to obtain the best feasible solution. The obtained results indicate a substantial reduction in electricity costs, achieving daily savings of 72.21 % and reducing grid dependency by 41.95 %. Moreover, 82.2 % of the community's energy demand was met through locally generated resources with 18.39 % enhancement of the overall CMG self-consumption ratio comparing to the reference operating scenario. Ultimately, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of the management system in improving load profiles, maximizing the use of local renewable energy sources, and reducing electricity expenses, thereby providing a sustainable and economically viable model for future smart grids.