Open Access

Faber Jair Jimenez Restrepo

• The current thesis conducts the study on the integration of digitalization techniques aimed at improving energy supply efficiency in off-grid energy systems. The primary objective is to fortify the security of energy supply in remote areas, particularly in instances of adverse weather conditions, unanticipated changes in load and fluctuations in the performance of renewable energy systems. ThisThe current thesis conducts the study on the integration of digitalization techniques aimed at improving energy supply efficiency in off-grid energy systems. The primary objective is to fortify the security of energy supply in remote areas, particularly in instances of adverse weather conditions, unanticipated changes in load and fluctuations in the performance of renewable energy systems. This objective is to be achieved through the implementation of a smart load management strategy in stand-alone photovoltaic systems (SAPVS). This strategy involves deployment of forecasting algorithms on an edge device that operates with limited processing resources in an environment characterized for the lack of internet connection. The edge device is designed to interact with a smart home gateway that prioritizes, and schedules smart appliances based on the forecasted state of charge (SOC) in the 36-hours ahead of the SAPVS operation (the implementation of the loads schedule deployed on the Home Assistant device is out of the scope of the tasks implemented for this project). The edge device, developed using a Raspberry Pi 3B+, was specifically intended for being implemented along with a SAPVS, in remote areas such as health stations in Africa and tropical islands, providing communities with a reliable source of electrical energy. The deployment of the strategy was carried out in four phases. The first phase involved the implementation of an Extraction-Transformation-Load (ETL) pipeline, where data was gathered from various heterogeneous hardware sources of an implemented test system that served as the enabler and testbench of this research, this test stand is composed of power electronics components such as an inverter, a MPPT solar charge controller, a smart meter, and a BOS LiFePo4 battery prototype. In the transformation stage, a data model was developed to identify the most critical parameters of the energy system, and to eliminate outliers and null values. In the load stage, a local SQL database was established for saving and structuring the data gathered and to ensure high-quality data with defined units and casting. The second phase involved data analysis to identify the relevant features and potential exogenous variables for the forecasting model to implement. In the third phase, an Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) model with two selected exogenous variables was implemented to forecast the AC load consumption profile for the 36- hours ahead of the off-grid system operation. The final phase involved the information exchange with the Home Assistant device, by transferring to it from the edge device the battery SOC present value and the predicted 36-hour ahead AC load profile information for prioritization and scheduling of loads; this through an MQTT interface. The outcome of the experiment was a successful deployment of a data engineering and data forecasting approach that enabled data quality strategy implementation, local database storage, and forecasting algorithms on a processing and internet-constrained edge device. The interface with a home assistant implementation resulted in the successful execution of smart load management endeavors in an off-grid system, thereby enhancing the energy security of supply and contributing to the advancement of data-driven strategies in the rural electrification sector. This thesis emphasizes the significance of digitalization strategies in smart SAPVS and highlights the potential of edge computing solutions in achieving seamless energy management in smart homes.…