EMS for fuel saving in an isolated hybrid system
(solar/diesel/battery)
1st Luis Santiago Azuara-Grande 2nd Santiago Arnaltes
Department of Electrical Department of Electrical
Engineering Engineering
Universidad Carlos III de Universidad Carlos III de
Madrid Madrid
Leganés, Spain Leganés, Spain
lazuara@ing.uc3m.es arnalte@ing.uc3m.es
Abstract—This paper presents an energy management
system (EMS) for a fuel saving application in an isolated hybrid
system (solar/diesel/battery) that takes into consideration the
battery degradation. A simplified model is used for estimating
the battery degradation. The operation of the hybrid system,
which it is carried out by the EMS, is based on a rolling horizon
strategy to minimize fuel consumption and degradation. The
optimal operation of the system is solved as an optimization
problem in MATLAB to obtain the schedule of the battery
energy storage system (BESS) while estimating its degradation.
Moreover, the energy produced by each generation system is
calculated and compared to a configuration without BESS.
Keywords—EMS, BESS, battery degradation, hybrid system,
optimization.
I. INTRODUCTION
Power generation from diesel gensets plays a key role for
industrial companies and rural communities all over the
world, especially in remote regions without a good grid
infrastructure. They allow to create simple off-grid systems
with a moderate initial investment [1][2].
However, these applications have some disadvantages.
First, the grid they create is totally dependent on diesel, which
is a non-renewable. On the other hand, the energy generated
is expensive due to high prices of fuel and the difficulty of
supplying in remote regions. Furthermore, diesel-based
systems have to face constant price increases and high
operational expenditures (OPEX) directly related to the use of
fuel [1][2].
Apart from that, CO2 emissions increase with the use of
gensets. This fact has to be taken into account, not only as a
moral exigence towards global warming, but also because it
could entail governmental fees, affecting OPEX [1].
PV system prices have fallen in the last years, allowing
nowadays generating energy at a more competitive cost
compared to fuel. In regions with high solar irradiation levels
and expensive fuel prices, PV systems can be amortized in less
than four years. Furthermore, PV plants require low
maintenance, they can be configured according to specific
energy demands and do not produce CO2 emissions [3].
In addition, in recent years due to technological advances
in the field of electrochemical batteries, they are beginning to
have a key role in on-grid and off-grid projects. Being a
fundamental element for isolated hybrid systems to integrate
maximum energy from the PV plants and minimizing the use
of diesel [3].
This work has been supported by the Autonomous Community of
Madrid under the PROMINT-CM project (P2018/EMT-4366).
978-1-7281-7455-6/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE
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3rd Jaime Alonso-Martinez 4th Jose Luis Rodriguez-Amenedo
Department of Electrical Department of Electrical
Engineering Engineering
Universidad Carlos III de Universidad Carlos III de
Madrid Madrid
Leganés, Spain Leganés, Spain
jalonsom@ing.uc3m.es amenedo@ing.uc3m.es
In [4], HOMER is used to analyze and optimize the
renewable energy sources along with BESS in terms of cost
and pollution for an isolated island. In [5], the simulation and
optimization of the operation in an off-grid hybrid energy
system have been also done using HOMER. And in [6] the
optimal operation of the microgrid is obtained by a mixed
integer linear programming (MILP) to minimize the operation
cost of the generation units.
Although these publications on hybrid systems with BESS
do not perform a thorough analysis of its lifetime, it is essential
to consider the battery degradation, since the BESS is the
element with the highest capital expenditure (CAPEX) of the
hybrid system and it has very restrictive limitations in
operating conditions (temperature, charge and discharge
power, cycles) [7].
Moreover, [8] includes an estimation of battery lifetime in
the optimization of a hybrid microgrid, and [9] proposes an
EMS for microgrids with hybrid energy storage system (ESS),
consisting of batteries and supercapacitors, which
incorporates degradation costs of the BESS with respect to the
depth of discharge and lifetime. In both cases the degradation
models have complex equations and the adjustment
coefficients are difficult to identify.
This paper proposes an optimization problem to develop
the EMS of an off-grid hybrid microgrid to minimize fuel
consumption and battery degradation for a fuel saving
application. In addition, the energy generated by each
technology of the hybrid system with BESS over the
conventional hybrid solar/diesel system is analyzed.
In Section II the optimization problem is developed. In
Section 0 the simplified model of battery degradation is
described. Section IV presents and discusses the results. And,
finally, conclusions are given in Section V.
II. FUEL SAVING STRATEGY
The objective of the operation strategy is to minimize the
diesel gensets fuel consumption through the PV plant and the
BESS, while at the same time the degradation of the battery is
also minimized. The optimal operation of the microgrid is
obtained by a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) and
the optimization toolbox in MATLAB is used to solve the
optimization problem.
Thus, the problem formulation structure is developed
within a rolling horizon control (RHC) scheme that
periodically updates input data information. The optimization
problem is solved at each time step to determine the operation
plan of the system over a fixed time horizon, but only the first
output from this plan is applied to the system. At the next time
step, it repeats the process, solving a new optimization
problem with the time horizon shifted one step forward. The 7) Battery SoC Limits
optimization problem takes into account estimates of future ≥ ( )≥ (8)
values based on available information at each time step [10].
In this case the time horizon is 24 hours and the time step where SoCMax/SoCMin are respectively the upper/lower SoC
is 1 hour. The objective function and the constraints of the thresholds.
optimization problem are represented by the following
equations (1-12): 8) BESS Mode
( )+ ( ) ≤1 (9)
A. Objective function
Obtain the total minimal marginal cost for a time horizon where the binary variables NCharge and NDischarge are introduced
of N hours. to avoid simultaneous charge/discharge.
( )+ ( )+ ( ) ∙
9) BESS Power Limits
+( ( )∙ ) (1)
( ∙ ( )) ≥ ( ) (10)
+ (∆ ( )∙ )

( ∙ ( )) ≥ ( ) (11)
where the binary variables Ni indicate the on/off status for
gensets (Ni=1, on) and (Ni=0, off), PGensets represent the power
output from gensets running, Hourly Cost is the hourly where PBESSMax is the upper BESS power threshold.
wearing cost for each genset, Fuel Cost represents the fuel 10) Battery SoH
cost, and Degradation Cost is the cost of using the BESS. ( )= ( − 1) − ( − 1)
(12)
B. Constraints: − ( − 1)
1) Power Balance
where SoH represents the state of health of the battery as the
( )= ( )+ ( )+ ( )
(2) remaining usable energy of the battery throughout its lifetime.
− ( )
11) Battery SoH Increase
where PLoad is the load demand power, PPVF is the final PV ∆ ( )= ( − 1) − ( ) (13)
plant power output, PBESSD is the BESS discharging power,
and PBESSC is the BESS charging power. where ΔSoH represents the loss of state of health in the
battery.
2) PV Plant Curtailment
( )≥ ( )≥0 (3) The proposed EMS is implemented for a microgrid
composed of a PV plant, three diesel gensets and a BESS,
whose characteristics are described in the TABLE I.
where PPVA is the the available PV plant power output. Moreover, the data of the solar irradiation and the load
3) Gensets Limits demand have been obtained from a real isolated microgrid
located in Colombia.
∙ ( )+ ( )+ ( ) ≥ ( )
TABLE I. Elements of microgrid.
(4)
≥ ∙( ( )+ ( )+ ( )) Diesel Generator x 3 Values
Rated Power (kW) 2000
where PMax/PMin are respectively the upper/lower gensets
thresholds. Minimum Rated Capacity (kW) 400
Spinning Reserve (kW) 700
4) Spinning Reserve
Fuel Cost (€/MWh) 200
∙ ( ( ) + ( ) + ( )) − ( )
(5) Hourly Wearing Cost (€/h) 100
≥ ∙( ( )+ ( )+ ( ))

where R is the spinning reserve fixed requirement for gensets. PV Plant Values BESS Values

5) Number of Gensets On Power (kW) 1200

AC Power (kW) 4000
( ( )+ ( )+ ( )) ≥ 1 (6) Capacity (kWh) 4800
Roundtrip Efficiency (%) 81
the binary variables Ni are introduced to avoid the DC Power (kWp) 5000
Degradation Cost (€/MWh) 70
simultaneous shut-down of all gensets, since the synchronous
generators carry out the grid voltage and frequency control.
In TABLE I the costs have been established by priority of
6) Battery SoC use of the generation units, being first the PV plant with a zero
( )= ( − 1) + ( ( − 1) ∙ ) cost, second discharging the battery and the last increasing the
(7)
−( ( − 1)/ ) load of the gensets.

where SoC represents the state of charge of BESS and η is the

BESS charge/discharge efficiency.

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 III. BATTERY DEGRADATION MODEL
Lithium-Ion batteries lose capacity due to degradation
which is produced by its use due to stress factors like depth of
discharge (DoD), state of charge (SoC), charge/discharge rate
(C-rate) and temperature (T). The number of parameters
involved in the degradation process and its correlation make a
highly complex multi-dimensional problem [11].
To facilitate the resolution of the problem, a simplified
degradation model has been used, which is based on the
battery energy throughput. Batteries have an initial capacity,
usually called beginning of life (BoL) capacity. After a
number of cycles (typically around 5,000 to 7.000 cycles), the
battery reaches the so-called end-of-life (EoL) capacity
(typically around 60-70% of the BoL capacity). Therefore,
each time the battery is used, that energy will be summed until
the total number of cycles energy is reached. This has been
calculated using the lifetime cycles multiplied by twice the
storage capacity, since a complete cycle is equivalent to a full
charge and discharge of the battery, thus obtaining the total
usable energy of the battery throughout its lifetime.
Through equation (12), charging or discharging energy is
subtracted from the usable energy of the battery lifetime. To
calculate the lifetime energy, a 7000-cycle life has been
assumed, based on lithium battery manufacturer datasheets.
IV. RESULTS
The results of the optimization for scheduling the
operation of the off-grid hybrid system are obtained through a
8760 hours simulation (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Off-grid hybrid system (solar/diesel/battery) operation for a year.
Fig. 2, and Fig. 3 also show the results of the off-grid
hybrid system operation for some particular periods of time.
The first plot shows the load profile (black) and the power
generated by the diesel gensets (red). The second plot shows
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the available PV plant power (green), the final PV plant power
(purple) and the BESS charge/discharge power (blue). The
third plot shows the SoC of the battery and the last plot shows
the SoH of the battery.
A. Control of the hybrid system
Following, different scenarios throughout the annual
simulation are analysed:
1) High PV production
Fig. 2 shows the scenario of a day with high PV
production, that causes the battery charging, and allows to take
advantage of the solar resource so preventing having to curtail
the production of the PV plant (hour 230). But the curtailment
of the PV plant also occurs due to the power limitation of the
BESS (between hours 225 and 230).
Moreover, it is observed that during the hours of maximum
PV production, there is one genset running at its minimum
power (between hours 225 and 230). Also, the battery is not
discharged immediately after PV power declined (between
hours 230 and 235). Therefore, the battery is discharged later
to avoid the start-up of the third genset while operating the
other two gensets below spinning reserve limit (between hours
235 and 240). In scenarios like this it is observed that the SoC
of the battery, results in one daily charge/discharge cycle,
being approximately the degradation of a complete cycle in
these conditions of 0.014%.
Fig. 2. Off-grid hybrid system (solar/diesel/battery) operation.
2) Low PV production
In this scenario shown in Fig. 3, there is a low PV
production. As the battery state of charge plot shows, there are
no surpluses from the PV plant and therefore no charging.
With a low energy generation from the PV plant and BESS,
the diesel gensets follow the load. Unlike in the previous
scenario, in this scenario it is necessary to start the third genset
(between hours 5130 and 5135).
Fig. 3. Off-grid hybrid system (solar/diesel/battery) operation.
After analysing the different scenarios, the results obtained
indicate a correct operation in the control of the hybrid system
within all the restrictions imposed.
B. Battery degradation
In this section the battery degradation is analyzed.
Equations (12-13), described in Section II, are used to obtain
battery degradation. In Fig. 1, the last plot shows that SoH at
the end of the first year is 97% i.e. the fuel saving optimization
causes an annual degradation of the battery of 3%. Assuming
a linear degradation and that the EoL is reached at 70% SoH,
the battery would service for 10 years.
C. Energy analysis
Finally, the energy produced by each generation system is
calculated and compared to a configuration without BESS.
Therefore, 70% of the yearly energy demand (22,250
MWh/yr) was supplied by the diesel gensets and the
remaining 30% by the PV plant, of which 85% of the energy
was poured directly to the grid and the remaining 15% was
stored in the BESS for a later use. If these results are compared
with the hybrid system without BESS, it is observed that 75%
of the energy demanded would be supplied by the diesel
gensets and the remaining 25% by the PV plant.
Furthermore, the annual energy surplus due to the
curtailment in the PV plant with BESS represent 5.5% of the
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total production of the plant (7,165 MWh/yr) while without
BESS it is 21.5%.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper proposes an EMS for the optimal operation of
an off-grid hybrid system, which minimize the fuel
consumption of the diesel gensets and battery degradation.
Results show that the battery for the fuel saving application
would have a 10 years lifetime until it reaches 70% of its
remaining capacity.
Finally, the advantages of installing a BESS, in a hybrid
system with diesel gensets and a PV plant, are the energy time
shift and the increase in the energy produced, about 16%
more, by the PV plant, since the BESS allows increasing the
capacity factor of the PV plant and reduce surpluses by
curtailment. Consequently, decreasing the energy produced by
the diesel gensets.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported by the Autonomous
Community of Madrid under the PROMINT-CM project
(P2018/EMT-4366).
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