A simple operation strategy of battery storage systems under dynamic electricity pricing: An Italian case study for a medium-scale public facility

In the electricity market, wholesale energy prices depend on the balance between energy production and load demand. In the last few years, electricity market has become more and more flexible as many utilities have started to replace the fixed retail prices schemes with prices changing during the day. Dynamic pricing, also known as Real-Time Pricing (RTP), reflects the trend of the wholesale market and allows to reduce the volatility of the wholesale prices, also contributing to a reduction of demand peaks. Electricity customers take advantage of dynamic pricing by shifting their consumption according to the real-time prices or by using Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to shift electricity consumption. As a result, storing electricity in off-peak periods allows customers to lower electricity rates during on-peak periods. This paper describes the application to a medium-scale public facility of a simple BESS operating strategy which aims to maximize the saving for the end-user. The operating strategy is able to identify, for each daily period, the charging and discharging hours, relying only on the hourly spot market price profile (day-ahead electricity prices) and may be applied to all kinds of BESS. The experimental evaluation uses a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) storage system and results highlight how the power profile of the public facility changes as a result of the proposed charging strategy.