Modeling and Simulation of a Residential Neighborhood with Photovoltaic Systems Coupled to Energy Storage Systems

The diffusion of the photovoltaic installations is reaching significant levels in the low voltage electric grid, therefore the need of effective energy management strategies increases. Within the Swiss2Grid (S2G) pilot project we are designing and testing a tool that allows the decentralized management of the distributed generation and consumption by controlling local energy storage systems and shifting the activation of households loads. In order to assess the effects of higher levels of diffusion of photovoltaic and storage system into the low voltage grid, we modeled the pilot residential neighborhood in Modelica, a multi-domain, open-source modeling language. In this paper we describe the components and the selected penetration scenarios. We finally present the results of the simulations, analyzing the effects of the chosen scenarios on neighborhood overall power, voltage instabilities and self-consumption.