Optimal Sizing of a PV-ESS MicroGrid System Under Dynamic Pricing of Utility Energy

Assuming that the market provides a large offering of materials, the costumer may hesitate in choosing the right combination: {type of solar technology, number of panels, type of batteries, number of batteries} that will return the best savings when implementing a microgrid. This paper presents a model for calculating the optimal sizing of a renewable generation and an energy storage system (ESS) for an on-grid site, considering all the technical characteristics and constraints of the technologies used, and giving that the utility energy price follows a dynamic pricing method. It considers the non-controllable parameters that impact the renewable energy output, and chooses among the different technologies, the one that will perform the best. The sizing is elaborated using the historical data of one year, and can be extended to more than one year if the data is available.