3.1. Model Simulation
This section presents the application of the two scenarios, each corresponding to each objective. The first scenario refers to the energy cost objective function (Equation 1) and the second scenario to the environmental impact function (Equation 2). For each objective function, the comparison of a singular system composed of a lithium battery, was made against a hybrid system composed by a group of one lithium battery and one of each of the other 6 technologies.
Figure 3 illustrates the daily market prices and emission changes considered as inputs for corresponding scenarios 1 and 2, while in
Figure 4 the input forecasted load is provided.
The load corresponds to the electricity consumption of a building on the industrial partner site, it is based on a machine learning forecast module, trained with it’s a full year of historical data and is the same for both scenarios/functions. For the day ahead market prices and emissions, these are extracted from ENTSO-E transparency platform [
20] every day and a third-party platform called Sentinel by InescTec which forecasts the emissions for the following day based of generation forecast, market clearing and weather inputs.
The degradation curves [
19] and efficiencies [
17] considered as inputs for the model to run, were based on the values found in the literature. For a single battery the rates of 110 kW and 140 kWh were considered to run all simulations, while for the hybrid pair one battery was assumed to have 100 kW, 100 kWh (Li) and the second one 10kW and 40 kWh (other tech), both matching the size and capacity of the single unit.
As can be seen in
Figure 4, the load forecast demonstrates an accentuated reduction around midday. This is because the considered building is making use of the energy generated by the local PV system illustrated in
Figure 5 for self-consumption. The remaining consumption is requested to the grid and is the reference for the dispatch of the batteries.
Table 4 shows the results for all technologies considering the objective function 1. The columns show a range of results because both values (upper and lower bounds) of efficiency found in the literature, were considered, to capture the wide spectrum of possibilities of outcomes. The comparative results, show that two hybrid systems stand out. The Hybrid systems Lithium-Vanadium and Lithium-Supercapacitors outperforms the singular system. Vanadium batteries take advantage of its partially less intense degradation curve and supercapacitors of its high efficiency. The lowest value of the total cost column is observed in the upper bound of the supercapacitors, with a cost of 1188.8 €, while the highest total cost is observed in both Lead-Acid batteries and Ni-Ca batteries, with 1249.3 € in the lower bound of the range.
When compared to the Lithium single battery, there are two hybrid combinations that can clearly have lower total cost as can be seen in the last column by analyzing the lower values of the range. These correspond to the Lithium-Vanadium (-0.3% cost) and Lithium-Supercapacitors (-2.4% cost) pairs.
It is interesting to observe however, that most of the technologies have lower costs of degradation when compared to the lithium technology. Nevertheless, its relative weight when compared to the energy cost term of the optimization function, is two orders of magnitudes lower and hence contribute with little effect on the outcome of the objective function.
When two Lithium batteries are paired as a hybrid system the cost performance is worse. Even though the difference is minimum, it happens because the singular system, in order to fully charge its battery only needs two full charging cycle to do so. In turn, for the hybrid system to charge the same amount of energy, since the smaller battery can only charge at a 10 kW rate per cycle, it needs to do 4 charging cycle (40 kWh). While the singular system does less cycles of charging, it has a better energy cost. This happens because of the price intermittence between each cycle. The higher power battery has a higher C-rate which allows it to fully charge in the least costly hour. The same does not happen in the other battery which has a lower C-rate, resulting in an increase in the energy cost of the hybrid system.
In this situation, despite the same degradation curve, the singular system experiences slightly worse degradation (+1,6%) because the small battery from hybrid system, as mentioned before, just have a power of 10 kW, so the dept of discharge in cycles, in the hybrid system is smaller causing less degradation.
In Scenario 2 (OF2), with a shift in focus towards environmental impact emissions, the performance dynamics see mild changes. The single lithium battery system and supercapacitors stand out as best performers, however the hybrid system with vanadium and lithium batteries also reveal strong performance, particularly with regard to degradation.
All technologies in fact have lower degradation in terms of emissions than lithium batteries, being the lowest the supercapacitors ranging from (-18.3%) to (-15.7 %) less degradation. The total impact however can hardly be seen in the last column for most technologies, except for the Lithium-supercapacitors pair which demonstrate less 0.8% CO2 emissions followed by the Li-Flyweel pair with (-0.2%) CO2 emissions.
3.2. Field Data and Demonstration
For verification purposes, the model was tested with real data applying the dispatch optimization model to an existing HESS. The demonstration assets and conditions were made available by an industrial partner of the project in the North of Portugal. The existing HESS on-site is composed of two batteries: One is a vanadium redox flow battery, with 10 kW and 40 kWh and the other is a set of second life lithium batteries with 100 kW and 100 kWh. These batteries are connected to their individual inverters and are operated according to an EMS (energy management system), installed in a local PC. The HESS is connected to the building, ‘behind the meter’ through a common bus to which a PV system is also installed. The PV enables self-consumption and is explored by another internal entity, with its own business model and hence not part of possible decision variables of the model. As part of the optimal dispatch of the battery systems, several components interact according to the
Figure 5. The cloud data monitoring system, of the industrial site, sends the consumption data of the building every day. This consumption load profile is the part requested to the grid, including self-consumption as can be seen in
Figure 5. This data is stored in a database on InescTec side and is used by a forecasting model (to train and predict) to provide the expected consumption for the following day. InescTec energy management system (HEMS) is comprised of this forecasting module, but also by the incentive collection module and the management and optimization modules. The optimization module algorithm receives as inputs, the battery characteristics and both the load forecast and the incentives (price or environmental signals) and runs every day the algorithm. The output is a dispatch recommendation for the HESS to operate, minimizing the energy or environmental cost of supplying energy to the building, including to this end, the degradation of the batteries. The dispatch is provided to the Cloud Data Monitoring System, which sends the schedule to the local EMS.
The singular system is composed by a lithium battery with 140 kWh of capacity and 110 kW of power. The hybrid system is composed of two batteries. One lithium battery with 100 kWh of capacity and 100 kW of power and a vanadium with 40 kWh and 10 kW.
The introduction of a vanadium battery offers relevant performance due to the slower degradation of vanadium battery. Although it has slightly lower efficiency (75-85%) than Lithium (85-95%), the substantial reduction in degradation costs (-18.3%) is offset by increase in energy costs (+0.8%).
Table 4 and
Table 5 shows the outputs results for each scenario and technology for a full month of simulations, so that the results could be recurring and visible. In
Figure 6 and
Figure 7, is represented the recommendation dispatch and the state of charge of the batteries for one day, for a singular system respectively. The chosen systems were a Singular system (Lithium Battery) vs Hybrid system (Lithium and Vanadium batteries).
Scenario 1 (OF1)
Figure 6.
Daily dispatch example of the single Lithium battery (a) and dispatch of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF1.
Figure 6.
Daily dispatch example of the single Lithium battery (a) and dispatch of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF1.
Figure 7.
Daily SOC example of the single Lithium battery (a) and SOC of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF1.
Figure 7.
Daily SOC example of the single Lithium battery (a) and SOC of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF1.
In
Figure 8 it is illustrated a map/scatter chart that represents the area which system predominates depending on the chosen efficiency.
The performance of the HESS is only verified in specific cases of both battery efficiencies. The cost remains approximately the same as the improving element of the function related to the degradation is relatively small when compared to the contribution of the energy term. The inclusion of 2
nd life batteries in the HESS is an opportunity for having higher performance when coupled with the VRFB as can be seen in the
Figure 8. It can be seen that when the efficiency is lower in Lithium batteries, regardless of the efficiency of the VRFB (within the uncertainty range) the cost of the whole system is improved. The model shows that the hybrid storage system improves lifetime of the batteries (minimize degradation), on only specific cases of battery efficiency at approximately the same cost. For the simulation run a single system only outperforms a HESS in cases where Lithium efficiency if higher than approximately 87% and vanadium is lower approximately 82%.
Figure 9 and
Figure 10 show the results when applying the emissions optimization function (OF2). The results only show a single day of dispatch, with one Lithium battery and when the system is operated as a HESS. The incentives and load demand will dictate the entries of each battery. In this daily case, as an example, one can see in
Figure 9 on the right, the second battery charging at 19h at 3 kW and discharging immediately after also at 3 kW.
Scenario 2 (OF2)
Figure 9.
Daily dispatch example of the single Lithium battery (a) and dispatch of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF2.
Figure 9.
Daily dispatch example of the single Lithium battery (a) and dispatch of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF2.
Figure 10.
Daily SOC example of the single Lithium battery (a) and SOC of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF1.
Figure 10.
Daily SOC example of the single Lithium battery (a) and SOC of the Lithium and VRFB Hybrid System (b) using OF1.
Figure 10 show the state of charge of the single Lithium battery operation and on the right the HESS operation. Consequently, the green battery only charges 3 kWh at 19h and discharges to zero in the following hour. The relatively small contribution of the second battery is explained by the relative high weight of the Vanadium battery on the energy term of the optimization function when compared to the lithium one. The second term regarding the degradation even though smaller in the VRFB case its contribution to the OF2 is very small and it ends up being called very seldomly.
The emissions cost in hybrid system with vanadium increase because now, the input is not the market prices but emissions. This input requires the hybrid system to perform more charge cycles and due to the low efficiency of vanadium battery causes an increase in the emissions cost.
At this point it is also important to complement the analysis from the battery C-rate perspective. The C-rate can be regarded as the ratio of the rated power by the energy capacity. It determines the speed at which a battery is fully charged or discharged. In the existing HESS pair of the industrial partner considered in the verification of this article, the Lithium battery has a C-Rate 1 (100 kW/100 kWh), taking one hour to charge, while the VRFB has a C-rate of 0.25, which takes four hours to charge (10 kW/40 kWh).
The choice of the two batteries should bear in mind the C-Rate dedicated to each, whose higher distance in rate will mean higher cost. This is because when a much higher energy capacity exists compared to the rated power, as in the example studied, the energy-based battery takes longer to fully charge, meaning that it needs more hourly slots with potential different (higher) prices, resulting in an overall higher cost of energy. If the same model is run, but assuming similar values for the C-Rates for example 0.785 which corresponds to Lithium with 55kW, 70 kWh and VRFB with 55kW 70 kWh, the cost performance improves as shown in
Table 6.