Energy Management

In the “Energy management” dialog, you define the operating strategy of the battery system. In addition to self-consumption optimization, which is always active, further options are available that allow you to control the charging and discharging behavior of the battery in a targeted way.

Overview of the general conditions

The upper area of the dialog summarizes the general conditions of your project that are relevant for energy management:

• Maximum Feed-in Power Clipping: Shows whether feed-in power clipping has been defined for the system. The “Edit” link takes you to the Options dialog, where you can adjust the feed-in power clipping.
• Consumption: Shows the total consumption, the load peak, and the annual utilization hours.
• Battery System: Shows the maximum discharge power, the maximum charging power, and the minimum SOC of the battery system.

The load peak refers to a period of 15 minutes if the simulation was run with a 1-minute time step. Otherwise, the load peak is shown for a period of 1 hour.

Self-consumption optimization

Self-consumption optimization is always active and cannot be deactivated. The battery is charged with surplus PV power and discharged to cover consumption. Two variants are available for charging:

• Standard: The battery is charged as soon as PV surplus is available.
• Delayed charging up to max.: Until the specified time, the battery is only charged up to the specified SOC value (in %). This keeps storage capacity available for the midday peak of PV generation.

Combining the options

The options “Peak shaving”, “Time-controlled charging and discharging”, and “Dynamic tariffs” are marked with an asterisk (*) and cannot be combined with each other. Only one of these options can be active at a time. The option “Reserve for backup power”, on the other hand, can be activated in addition.

Peak shaving

With peak shaving, the battery is used to cut load peaks and thus limit the maximum power drawn from the grid. The following parameters are available:

• SoC reserve for peak shaving: Share of the battery capacity (in %) that is reserved exclusively for peak shaving. The value in kWh is displayed next to it. This share is not available for self-consumption optimization.
• Recharge if level falls below: If the SOC falls below the defined reserve, the battery is charged again up to the reserve.
• Maximum from-grid power: Upper limit (in kW) for the power that is to be drawn from the grid.

You receive direct feedback on the selected settings:

• the minimum power required for the selected maximum from-grid power, compared to the power the battery system can provide,
• how often the maximum from-grid power is exceeded per year in the currently selected load profile, including the amount of energy per year and per exceedance.

The graphic on the right shows how the battery capacity is divided into the area for self-consumption optimization (green) and the area for peak shaving (orange). Please note that this schematic graphic does not adapt to the values you set.

Time-controlled charging and discharging

With this option, time-controlled charging and discharging processes can be parameterized. Time-controlled charging and time-controlled discharging can each be activated individually.

Time-controlled charging

With time-controlled charging, the battery system tries to charge the battery up to the specified SOC target value during the defined periods C1 to C3. At most, the defined charging power is used. Up to three periods can be defined. They must not overlap.

The following parameters are available:

• SOC target value: State of charge (in %) up to which the battery is to be charged.
• Charging Power: Maximum power (in kW) used for charging.
• Number of periods: Number of charging periods (1 to 3).
• Start Time / End Time: Beginning and end of the periods C1 to C3.

Time-controlled discharging

With time-controlled discharging, on the other hand, the battery system tries to discharge the battery down to the specified SOC target value during the defined periods D1 to D3, also taking the defined discharge power into account. Here, too, up to three periods can be defined.

The following parameters are available:

• SOC target value: State of charge (in %) down to which the battery is to be discharged.
• Discharge Power: Maximum power (in kW) used for discharging.
• Number of periods: Number of discharging periods (1 to 3).
• Start Time / End Time: Beginning and end of the periods D1 to D3.

With time-controlled discharging, the discharged power can be fed into the grid. The fed-in energy is remunerated at the feed-in tariff. Please check whether this complies with the regulations applicable to your system.

Dynamic tariffs

With dynamic tariffs, the charging and discharging behavior of the battery depends on the current electricity price. To do this, you define two price limits, which you can activate independently of each other:

• Charge when electricity price ≤: The battery is charged when the electricity price reaches or falls below the set value (price per kWh).
• Discharge when electricity price ≥: The battery is discharged when the electricity price reaches or exceeds the set value (price per kWh).

If the battery is discharged due to the electricity price, the discharged power can be fed into the grid. The fed-in energy is remunerated at the feed-in tariff. Please check whether this complies with the regulations applicable to your system.

Reserve for backup power

With this option, part of the battery capacity is kept available for backup power operation. Under Do not discharge below, you define the SOC (in %) below which the battery is not discharged during normal operation. The correspondingly reserved amount of energy in kWh is displayed next to it.