SIZING OF A BATTERY ENERGY-STORAGE SYSTEM FOR THE FACULTY OF TECHNICAL SCIENCES – BITOLA

Abstract

Renewable energy sources are the key to reducing carbon emissions and achieving more energy independency. Up to 2018 the Faculty of Technical Sciences Bitola used only electrical energy from the grid. In 2019, the faculty installed its first 20 kW of photovoltaic panels. The number of panels has doubled and as of 2023, the installed power is 40 kW. As a prosumer, the faculty uses the grid energy for covering the energy needs when the generation from the PVs is insufficient. When the generated energy from PVs is high, it is used by the faculty building and in cases when generated energy exceeds the faculty’s load, the energy is exported to the grid. The positive thing is that the faculty’s work time is synchronised with the generation of the photovoltaic panels (08:00-16:00). During periods of low PV energy production (such as cloudy weather), a battery storage system can offset energy shortfalls. The critical question is determining the optimal battery capacity that achieves maximum financial benefit by minimising investment costs and maximising returns from selling surplus energy back to the grid. The main goal of this paper is to calculate optimal capacity of battery energy storage for achieving minimum dependency from grid power and to reduce faculty costs for electricity from the grid.