Towards energy-efficient and cost-effective DC nanaogrid: A novel pseudo hierarchical architecture incorporating V2G technology for both autonomous coordination and regulated power dispatching

Most recently, DC nanogrid incorporating effective energy management has attracted widespread attention. Due to its favorability to integrate renewable energy sources and emerging power electronic loads, such as photovoltaics and electric vehicles (EVs), DC nanogrid is believed to be able to improve the energy utilization efficiency and mitigate the carbon footprint in the coming decades. Towards a compact, cost-effective, and easy-to build energy management scheme for nanogrid, this paper presents a pseudo hierarchical management architecture built upon the smart charging point. The proposed architecture incorporates the upper-level central controller with the local power role creatively and comprises two timescale management levels with corresponding operation strategies. In the short-timescale local management level, a state-triggered droop strategy based on the decentralized control mechanism is introduced to realize the autonomous power coordination without extensive communication links. The autonomous vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operation is also implemented with providing real-time power balance capability to unpredicted and short-timescale load variation in peak periods. In the power dispatching level, a multi-mode power dispatching strategy involving six operation modes is introduced to realize the efficient power scheduling for the nanogrid. The effectiveness of the proposed architecture and operation strategy is verified in the detailed simulation model and hardware-in-loop experiment platform. The results show that the real-time, autonomous, and stabilized power coordination in nanogrid could be realized along with a self-regulated V2G operation. Additionally, the peak-shaving and valley-filling of load curve, the satisfaction of EV charging demand, and an improved operation economy are achieved under the proposed architecture and operation strategy.

Automated summary

This paper presents a pseudo hierarchical management architecture for effective energy management in a compact, cost-effective, and easy-to-build DC nanogrid. The proposed architecture incorporates a state-triggered droop strategy in the short-time scale local management level and a multi-mode power dispatching strategy in the power dispatching level to achieve real-time, autonomous, and stabilized power coordination in the nanogrid. The effectiveness of the architecture and operation strategy is verified through detailed simulation models and hardware-in-loop experiments, showing improved operation economy and satisfaction of EV charging demand.