A Real Smart Digital Current Simulator Prototype for BESS Power Management

Commercial Battery Energy Storage Systems are equipped with a standard control unit with simplified logic, able to reduce the impact of the power system on the electric grid. The standard control is locked in a closed environment without any chance to modify the logic. The control unit receives signals from current sensors located at the entrance point of the power system. This paper presents a proposal of innovative device called Smart Digital Current Simulator as a substitute of those current sensors, aiming to generate a sinusoidal signal that falsifies the real induced current inside current sensor's windings by house power leads, in order to fool the control unit to inject or withdraw the desired electric power from or to the electric system. This paper shows a prototype of the suggested device completed of the open sources Node-Red server, Mosquitto broker and Home Assistant Container. This device communicates through Mosquitto protocol and can be managed by a user-friendly Graphic User Interface with open logics to manage a user-desired charge and discharge. Also, allows complying Demand Side Management and Demand Response strategies, otherwise not possible. Moreover, it is useful to buy energy when the price of electricity is below a specific threshold or the Battery Storage power is preferred instead of the grid power when the price of electricity is above a specific threshold. Finally, is able to perform a peak shaving to keep the withdrawal of power constant from the grid. This paper was presented in the conference IEEE IAS Nashville 2023.