Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference,AUPEC 2013, Hobart,TAS,Australia,29 September - 3 October 2013

Grid-Connected Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage

System for Load Leveling and Peak Shaving
Tahoura Hosseini Mehr, Student Member, IEEE, Mohammad A.S. Masoum, Senior Member, IEEE,
Nasim Jabalameli, Student Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
tahoura.hosseinimehr@curtin. edu.au, m.masoum@curtin.edu.au, nasimjabalameli@postgrad.curtin.edu.au

Abstract- Load leveling, peak shaving and power demand
management are major applications of a grid-connected battery
energy storage system (BESS), especially in an autonomous
power network. Lithium-ion BESS has started to become one of
the most popular options of energy storage systems due to its
high charge/discharge efficiency and significant energy density.
This paper presents a current control scheme for Lithium-ion
BESS that utilizes the state of charge (SOC) of the batteries to
satisfy system operation constraints. The output signal of the
proposed current loop controller is fed to the PWM generator
block to produce the gating signals for the converter
semiconductor switches. The control algorithm considers the
active and reactive grid reference signals as long as the battery
state of charge (SOC) is within the designated upper and lower
limits. Detailed simulations are performed and analysed for
typical operating conditions with BESS absorbing/injecting
power from/to the grid, as well as large active power commands
beyond the capability of the battery. Simulations are aimed to
investigate the steady-state and transient performances of BESS
responses while displaying minimum overshoot.
Keywords-Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), State of
charge (SOC), Bidirectional ac-dc converter, microgrid.
I. INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy resources in the form of distributed
generation (DG) are being progressively integrated in power
systems to increase power generation, provide grid support
and reduce carbon dioxide emission [1]-[3]. However, most
renewables have unpredictable nature and intermittent output
characteristics that may create energy imbalances within the
power grid. The interface between DGs and the grid are
normally power electronic converters and energy storage
systems. Recent advances in power electronics are making
applications to energy storage technologies, particularly
battery energy storage systems (BESSs) a potentially viable
mountain and valley shape of the load curve. This can be
realized through a battery energy storage system with a
bidirectional converter that can absorb energy from the grid
(working as a rectifier) and inject it back to the grid (working
as an inverter) at given active (Pref) and reactive (Qref) power
command levels [7]. The converter output current and voltage
are measured; the voltage is used directly and the current is
compared to the reference current signal in order to provide
the voltage reference to a PWM modulator which produces the
gating signals for the converter semiconductor switches.
This paper implements a grid-connected Lithium-ion (Li­
ion) BESS and investigates its performance for load leveling
and peak shaving of power grid. The implemented controller
uses the battery state of charge (SOC) to satisfy the system
limits while regulating the active and reactive power.
Simulations are carried out in MATLAB for a BESS
connected to the grid through a long transmissions line during
discharging and charging modes of the Lithium-ion battery for
load step variations.
II. BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM (BESS)
In order to achieve peak shaving and load levelling,
batteries should be charged with the produced energy from the
power plant during off-peak demand and discharged to inject
energy into the network during periods of high electricity
demand. This will help in smoothing the typical mountain and
valley shape of the load curve. During intermediate power
demand, BESS is used to balance supply and demand in order
to maintain constant frequency, if it operates as part of an
autonomous power system (Fig. 1). During this period, the
battery SOC limits must be satisfied [8].
Power Production
without BESS Discharging Mode
#

solution for advanced power applications [4]. Energy storage

devices such as batteries, or ultra-capacitors can now be used ] .� Charging Mode

Q E.3
��-g
·
·
to provide instantaneous fast voltage and frequency regulation, ·

load shifting (e.g., adjusting to the variations in wind and/or

."

.9 £
'"

+-_IC..-_,� '
�
solar output power over timeframes of minutes to hours), volt­ .
.... _--,'
Power Production ..... _-----

with BESS
ampere reactive support and outage protection [5]-[6]. Time

A promising solution to regulate power demand in power

6.00h 12.00h 18.00h 24.00h
system is to store cheap energy at off-peak demand periods
Figure I. Optimal charging and discharging of BESS for peak shaving and
(overnight) and inject it back into the network during periods
load leveling [8] .
of high electricity demand, and hence smoothing the typical
Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference,AUPEC 2013, Hobart,TAS,Australia,29 September - 3 October 2013 2

Pi Pi
Tr�+_t3
Pi Transmission Linel Pi Transmission Line2

230kV/25kV
l:s t
25kv/22Ov =

------------------------------------------
I
I
Pref
I

G
I

Qref
I
I
Control
Gl to G4
I

Vpcc
I
Scheme I

istorage
+

:C
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I

Li-ion
I

Bidirectional ac/dc
L •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Battery
Converter

Figure 2. Block diagram of the simulated Li-ion BESS connected to power grid.

The selected power grid, BESS topology and its installation IV. CURRENT CONTROL BASED ON BATTERY SOC LIMITS
location at point of common coupling (PCC) are presented in
The operating status of the battery and its SOC (in
Fig. 2. The BESS consists of a Li-ion battery, a bidirectional
percentage) depends on the maximum battery capacity (Qbat)
ac/dc converter capable of transferring power in both
as follow relation [8]:

[ ]
directions and voltage/current measurement equipment placed
at PCC, which provide inputs to the control scheme block in
order to produce gating signals for the converter
SOC = 100 1
1-- -
Q bat
f i(t)dt (3)
0
semiconductor switches.
where t is duration of charging and/or discharging of battery.
III. CONTROL SCHEME PRESENTATION FOR BIDIRECTIONAL To the point of

Li-ion common coupling

Batter:.Ly __,-___r-____t-_--,
POWER FLOW CONTROL
;.::. -o--,
Fig. 3(a) shows circuit diagram of the bidirectional
converter including a current control loop. Reference current
calculation is shown in Fig. 3(b) which is obtained from the
grid active reference power Pref and reactive reference power
, C
Qref, as well as the ac voltage phase information produced by a
digital phase-locked loop (PLL). In this figure, Hi(S) and Hv(s)
are current and voltage sensor gains, respectively. The
admittance compensator Gc(s) is designed to reject the
disturbance from His):

G c (s) - l_
__

(Vdc /2) (1)

The current loop controller Gls) is designed to compensate

the error between reference current and the feedback current
VPCC
Reference
sensed from the storage istorage' The output signal of the current Current

loop controller is fed to the PWM generator block to produce Calculation

the gating signals G1 to G4• In this paper, a quasi-proportional­

resonant (QPR) controller (Eq. 2) is adopted within the current (a)
loop controller to reduce the steady-state error at the
fundamental frequency (60 Hz):
2 k r {() cs
G i (s) = k p + (2)
s + 2{() c s + {() 6
2

where kp, kr and {()c are proportional gain, resonant gain and
equivalent bandwidth of the resonant controller, respectively.
(b)
Figure 3. Detailed diagram of BESS; (a) Circuit diagram of the bidirectional
ac-dc converter with current control loop, (b) Reference current calculation
Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference,AUPEC 2013, Hobart,TAS,Australia,29 September - 3 October 2013 3

1200.-------�--�--___.
The reference current calculation block (Fig. 3) has three

�': )
main inputs including two grid commands (Pref and Qref) and
the estimated battery SOC (Eq. 3). To ensure a longer life
cycle of the Li-ion battery, SOC variations are limited to upper
'" 400
and lower limits of SOCmax and SOCmin, respectively. The
'to
."
200
controller will take Pref as the control reference as long as SOC 0..
O�-------- ------------ -----'�-�rid
is changing within these limits. Otherwise when the value of �Qgrid I

f )
.200
Pref is too large and beyond the capability of battery, SOC will 0 0 02 0.04
time (sec)
0 06 0.08 0.1

take charge of the control. This means that the direction of (a)
power transfer will be changed to make sure battery SOC is
within the selected reliable range.
IOOO

V. SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF

� 500
PROPOSED BESS AND CONTROLLER �
�
."

�
The proposed BESS and control scheme are simulated in -Plood
O�-------------------------,�
MATLAB for step load variations in battery discharging and I -Qload
0 02 0.04 0 06 0.08 0.1
charging modes. Furthermore, system behaviour is simulated time(sec)
when the active power command is too big and beyond the (b)
250'.-----�--�--_____.
capability of the battery.

i�: l
The battery specifications are: DC voltage of 60V and the
total energy capacity of W= 550Wh. Since the 60V battery
pack only allows a maximum ac-line voltage 48Vrms, BESS 0-
'" 100
is connected to 220V bus (Bs), 60Hz via a 1:6 ratio � 50
transformer (Tr3) to provide required ac voltage and isolation
(shown in Fig. 2). The inverter switching frequency is selected
t O �------------___
,___.r--
...----j ,-Pstorage
g: r I
-Qstorage
to be 50kHz in order to improve the efficiency. The 220V bus -50
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
time(sec)
(Bs) is connected through a transformer to a 25kV bus (B4)'
(c)
The supporting BEES is connected across the load on bus B6. 80 .-------�--�--�

The selected parameters of the designed QPR controller (Eq.

2) for the analysis of this paper are kp = 2, kr = 50, O)e = 10 60

rad/s and 0)0 = 21t x 60 rad/s.

A. Operation of BESS in Discharging Mode Delivering

Power to the Grid

This scenario demonstrates operation of BESS in discharge 0

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
mode in order to satisfy the load high active power time (sec)
(d)
requirement (Fig. 2, Load I) which is beyond the grid 90, .-----�--�--�-�
capability. The initial SOC level is assumed to be 90% while
SOCmax=90% and SOCmin=30%. Simulation results are
� 89 9995
presented in .Fig4. :g
�
The active power provided by the grid is only lkW (Fig.
4(a)) while the required active power of the load is 1.2kW 89.999

(Fig. 4(b)). Therefore, according to Fig. 4(c), BESS is

injecting 200W to satisfy the load. This figure also indicates 89 9985
0 0.02 0.04 0 06 0 08
fast transient response of BESS (within 20msec) with time (sec)
minimum overshoot. According to Figs. 4(d) and 4(e), battery (e)
SOC and voltage levels are within the permissible limits.
Furthermore, the bidirectional converter is operating as an
inverter, therefore the voltage at PCC and the injected BESS
current are in phase (Fig. 4(f)).

B. Operation of BESS in Charging Mode Absorbing Power

from the Grid

This simulation scenario assumes system operation with

low power demand and/or inexpensive electricity prices (e.g.,
during off-peak hours). Therefore, BESS should absorb active Figure 4. Simulation results for Case A (BESS in charging mode) including
power from the grid to charge the battery. The initial SOC active and reactive power of grid (a), load (b) and BESS (c), as well as
battery voltage (d),SOC (e),PCC voltage and BESS injected current (f)
Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference,AUPEC 2013, Hobart,TAS,Australia,29 September

level is assumed to be 90% while SOCmax=90% and SOCmin=

- 3 October 2013 4

30%. Simulation results are presented in Fig. 5.

There is a 230W load connected to the grid (Fig. 5(b)), the
active power from the grid is 260W without the energy storage
system (Fig. 5(a)). According to Fig. 5(c), BESS will absorb
30W from the grid and slightly increases SOC (Fig. 5(e)).
Note that since the converter is operating as a rectifier, there is
a 180 degrees phase shift between PCC voltage and BESS 0.02 0 04 0.06 0 08 0.1

."
time (sec)
current (Fig. 5(t)).
(f)
Figure 5. Simulation results for Case B (BESS in discharging mode)
300
including active and reactive power of grid (a), load (b) and BESS (c), as

)
�
2S0

G 200
well as battery voltage (d),SOC (e),PCC voltage and BESS current (t)

� 150 C. BESS Operation in Discharging and Charging Modes

� 100
� 50
"0
This scenario investigates transient performance of BESS
.�
on
0..
switching from discharging mode to charging mode. To do
0
this, two different loads are connected to bus B6 through
-50
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 breaker 1 and breaker 2 as shown in Fig. 2. When the first load
time (sec)
(a) with power rating of l.2kW is connected to the system, grid
250
can only provide 1.0kW and BESS should operate in
'""200
discharging mode and deliver power to the grid in order to

)
�
� 150 satisfy this load. At t=25ms, load 1 will be disconnected and
is'
0

Oil 100
replaced with load 2 that only requires 250W while the grid
can now provide 285W. Therefore, due to the low active
� 50
power demand, BESS is expected to automatically switch to
� 0
I ' Pload charging mode and absorbing power from the grid to charge

llO \
I -Qload
-50
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 01
the battery. The initial SOC level is assumed to be 90% while
time (sec) SOCmax=90% and SOCmin=30%. Simulation results are shown

� Or I __
----
(b)
--------- -Pstorage
c
I · Qstorage
in Fig. 6.
Before t=25ms, the load is requesting l.2kW (load 1, Fig.
6(b)) while the grid can only provide 1.0kW (Fig. 6(a));
therefore, BSS is injecting 200W of active power to
� -20 compensate (Fig. 6(d)). As expected, during this period (t=O to
�
§:lJ
25ms) SOC level keeps dropping as shown in Fig. 6(e). On the
-30
� -----------_J other hand, when the load is switched to a lower level of
0.
-40
250W at t=25ms (load 2, Fig. 6( c)), BESS starts absorbing
0 0.02 0 04 0.06 0.08 01
time (sec) power from the grid (35W) and charges the battery to slowly
(c)
70
increase SOC.

60·
Fig. 6(t) shows PCC voltage and BESS (injecting/
observing) current. Note that before changing the active power
50
command (at t=0.25ms), the current and voltage are in phase
::::40
which means the converter is operating as an inverter, but after
..2� 30
> this time the current and voltage are forced to have a 180
20 degrees phase shift and the converter is working as a rectifier.
10 Furthermore, during the charging mode the magnitude of
00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 BESS current is decreased due to the reduction of the load.
time (sec)
(d)
From the waveforms of Fig. 6(t) it can be concluded that the
90 implemented converter and controller have a seamless energy
transfer performance in both directions.
89.9999 .

;f'. D. BESS Operation with Pre! Beyond Battery Capability

;; 89.9998'
0
'" Two case studies are presented to explore BESS operation
89.9997 beyond the capability of the battery forcing SOC outside its
nominated minimum (Case D l) and maximum (Case D2)
89 9996 values. The initial SOC level is assumed to be 90% while
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
time (sec)
SOCmax= 89.9992% and SOCmin= 89.9990%. Simulation
(e)
results are respectively presented in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference,AUPEC 2013, Hobart,TAS,Australia,29 September - 3 October 2013 5

Case Dl: In this simulation scenario, grid active and

reactive power reference values (which both are commanded �

J
from the grid) are relatively large positive and negative values
of 200W and -200Var (Fig. 7(a) and 7(b)) forcing the battery N

to be discharged beyond the designated minimum level of '"

2 -20
SOCmin=89.999%. Therefore, BESS will initially follow the
>5: -40
u

active power command. However after 55.6ms, where the

SOC reaches to its minimum value, the SOC control system -60
0 0 01 0.02 0.03 0 04 0 05
time (sec)
changes the direction of energy transfer in order to satisfy the
(f)
SOCmin requirement (Fig. 7(c)). The system can return to its Figure 6. Simulation results for Case C (BESS in discharging/charge
previous energy transfer direction and follow the command modes) including active and reactive power of grid (a), load l(b), load 2 (c)
signals only if after a time period the SOC limits are satisfied and P"r and P"sponse (d), as well as SOC (e), PCC voltage and BESS current
and the active power flow command has changed direction. (f)

2oo,.----�-- �--�--�-- �,___::__;_;_] 200
-Pgrid
1000 -Qgrid
�
§
�

100
� 800 '"
�
� 600
'0
"-<

400 ."'"
."'" g15 -100
'to 200
6:::
1--
__�
0..
-Pcommand
-Presponse
.200 -- -200
0 0.02 0.04 0 06 01
0c ---0:-".0:-c1- ----:
0c0: �2 - ----:
0 -7
03: :--- 0�074;---0:-" 0:-:5- � 0.06 time (sec)
time (sec)
a
(a)
-Qcommand
1200'.----�--r�-"'""�--�-- --,,- _ - ::O � � 200
C
Ploadl -Qresponse
�1000 -Qloadl
� § 100
�

::- 800 '"

g 600 g
'0

0
'" 400 ."'"
� -100
] 15
0; 200
& ·200 f-----'="-----==\-+-\--cf->--'---�___'c
__1
0.02
0.01 0 02 0 03 0 04 0 05 0.06
time (sec)
(b)
90 ,---�--�---�----.
300
-Pload2
89 9998
250 -Qload2
�200
Sci
�89 9996
�
�

5150 U89 9994

o
'"
Sci 100 89 9992
en

�
0; 50 89.999

0 89 99880c-----0:-" 0=-= ----O

c:-" .O4cc -- --: 0c.:0c::8 -- ---;!
0"'.0:-:c 6 -- --: 0.1
. 2
0 0.01 0.02 003 0.04 0.05 0.06 time (sec)
time (sec)
(c)
(c)
250
-Pcommand
�200 -Presponse
�
�150
�
0.. 100

."'" 50
gE
0
� .50 -Istorage
- 50 o 0 02
0 0 01 0 02 003 0.04 0.05 0.06
time (sec)

Figure 7. Simulation results for Case Dl; (a) command and response active
(d)
90
power, (b) command and response reactive, (c) battery SOC, (d) PCC voltage
and BESS current
89 9998
Fig. 7(b), shows Qresponse, which is following the command
S; 89 9996
u
from the grid (Qrec). Fig. 7(c) shows the SOC levels of
batteries. The SOC level changes alternately between its upper
89.9994
L----=-C:-:-----:�
: ="I"-:-=-;---=�=:_;:_==:_:;==
:j and lower limits. According to Fig. 7(d) the BESS current
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
time (sec) (lstorage) is now lagging the PCC voltage (Vpee) which is
expected due to the negative reference reactive power demand.
(e)
Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference,AUPEC 2013, Hobart,TAS,Australia,29 September - 3 October 2013 6

The three green colour ellipses show regions where the
direction of converter current has changed which indicates that
the direction of energy transfer is changing. In addition this
figure also confirms the seamless energy transfer of the
bidirectional ac/dc converter.
Case D2: In this case, there is an active power step change
command from -200W to 70W at t=70ms forcing the battery
to be charged beyond the designated maximum level of
SOCmax= 89.9992%.
It can be seen from Fig. 8(a), that Presponse which is the
BESS active power initially follows the command until SOC
reaches its maximum value. At t=52.35ms, SOC control
system changes the direction of power transfer and the battery
is put in the discharge mode in order to satisfy the SOC limits.
At t=70ms, the active power command direction is changed
and since the system is within the SOC limits; it starts to
follow the reference signal. The charging and discharging
statuses of the battery are confirmed by the SOC variations
shown in Fig. 8(b).
Fig. 8(c) shows PCC voltage (Vpee) and the BESS current
(lslor.ge) along with two green colour ellipses highlighting
regions where the direction of converter current is changed. In
the second region, since the active power command is
reduced, the magnitude of current is decreased as well. Also
this figure confirms the seamless energy transfer of the
bidirectional ac/dc converter.
300 �--�--�---�---
� 200
� inverters in distributed generation microgrids," iEEE Trans. Power
� 100
e
'"
"<l
� -100
'0
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a grid-connected Lithium-ion (Li-ion) BESS
is implemented that uses the battery status (SOC) to satisfy the
system limits while regulating the active and reactive power
according to the corresponding grid reference signals. The
proposed control scheme is realized using a current control
loop. The controller output signals are fed to the PWM
generator block to produce the gating signals for the inverter
semiconductor switches. In order to improve system efficiency
for peak shaving and load leveling conditions, a battery SOC
level control is also integrated in the control scheme.
Therefore the grid active power command is followed only if
the battery SOC limits are satisfied. Simulations are carried
out in MATLAB during discharging and charging modes of
the battery for load step variations while the system is
connected to the grid through a long transmission line.
Simulation results indicate that the system responses are quick
while displaying minimum overshoot. Also the seamless and
immediate energy transfer of the bidirectional ac/dc converter
has been confirmed.
VII. REFERENCES
[I] E. Barklund, N. Pogaku, M. Prodanovic, C. Hernandez-Aramburo and
T.c. Green, "Energy management in autonomous microgrid using
stability constrained droop control of inverters," iEEE Trans. Power
Electronics, vol. 23,no. 5,pp. 2346-2352,Sep. 2008.
[2] Y.W. Li and C.-N. Kao, "An accurate power control strategy for
power-electronics-interfaced distributed generation units operating in a
low voltage multibus microgrid iEEE Trans. Power Electronics, vol.
24,no. 12,pp. 2977-2988,Dec. 2009.
[3] Y.A.-R. I.Mohamed and E. F. EI-Saadany, "Adaptive decentralized
droop controller to preserve power sharing stability of paralleled
ElectroniCS, vol. 23,no. 6,pp. 2806-2816,Nov. 2008.
[4] Z. Chen,J. M. Guerrero and F. Blaabjerg, "A review of the stage of the
art of power electronics for wind turbines," iEEE Trans. Power

E
Electronics, vol. 24,no. 8,pp. 1859-1875,Aug. 2009.
g -200 1--��------J---' [5] A. Timbus, M. Liserre, R. Teodorescu, P. Rodriguez and F. Blaabjerg,
(i -Pcommand
"Evaluation of current controllers for distributed power generation
-Presponse
0 02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 systems," iEEE Trans. Power Electronics, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 654-664,
time (sec) Mar. 2009.
(a) [6] N. Stretch and N. Kazerani, "A Stand-alone, split-phase current­
90.0001 �--�--�---
sourced inverter with novel energy storage," iEEE Trans. Power
90 ElectroniCS, vol. 23,no. 6,pp. 2766-2774,Nov. 2008.
[7] H. Qian, J. Zhang, J.S. La and W. Yu, "A High-Efficiency Grid-Tie
�89.9999
Battery Energy Storage System," iEEE Trans. Power Electronics, vol.
�
;;89.9998 26,No. 3,March 2011.
o
Vl [8] S.Y. Giannoutsos and S. N. Manias, "A cascade control scheme for a
89.9997
grid connected Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)," iEEE
international Energy Conference and Exhibition, pp. 469-474,2012.
89.9995 �-----C-C:-::---
--;C:O.0-;-4
--
-
- --
0 0.02 0cc.06
:c::-- --;c:O.0-;;8 -;;0.1
time (sec)
(b)

-5 0
0 0.04
0 06
lime (sec)
(c)
Figure 8. Simulation results for Case D2; (a) command and response active
power, (b) battery SOC, (c) PCC voltage and BESS current