Analysis on battery storage utilization in decentralized solar energy networks based on a mathematical programming model

We study a decentralized solar energy network composed of multiple clusters, which correspond to households equipped with PV units, rechargeable batteries, electrical appliances, and an electric power router. Decentralized solar energy network is a new grid systems toward independence from existing power grid, and solar energy is main energy source for the decentralized energy network. Each cluster has a battery storage to use the renewable energy effectively, where battery degradation cannot be overlooked for long-term, persistent operation. This paper proposes an optimal power distribution minimizing the battery degradation on decentralized energy network. Because the battery degradation is unavoidable phenomenon for the battery utilization, we solve the optimal power distribution to keep the degradation minimum. The proposed approach limits the charge/discharge speeds and cycles at mixed integer programming formulation and achieves the optimal utilization of the renewable energy with less charge/discharge cycles. Experimental results using the real measured data of the power generation and consumption show the connection between the parameters for the battery degradation and the system performance.