PV Based Load Management System to Mitigate Power Grid Faults

The grid is an extremely important infrastructure of our society. Once centralized and vulnerable to the propagation of the effects of faults, is now being decentralized through Distributed Generation, Microgrids and the smart capabilities of the technologies used. Demand Response programs that include the consumer in the management process try to take advantage of the Energy Flexibility of grid users to make the grid more stable and more efficient. These initiatives have one common objective, the creation of a more resilient grid. In this paper, a methodology for simulating various scenarios of operation of a small community isolated from the main grid is presented. One PV system and one battery are considered for each of the simulated households. Only shiftable load profile units and a daily based consumption related to lighting were considered. Results suggest that the simulated community can operate under the established conditions. However, a large volume of energy had to be curtailed, indicating that a larger number and diversity of loads can be considered in further studies.