Open Access

This paper presents the use of model predictive control (MPC) based approach for peak shaving application of a battery in a Photovoltaic (PV) battery system connected to a rural low voltage gird. The goals of the MPC are to shave the peaks in the PV feed-in and the grid power consumption and at the same time maximize the use of the battery. The benefit to the prosumer is from the maximum use of the self-produced electricity. The benefit to the grid is from the reduced peaks in the PV feed-in and the grid power consumption. This would allow an increase in the PV hosting and the load hosting capacity of the grid. The paper presents the mathematical formulation of the optimal control problem along with the cost benefit analysis. The MPC implementation scheme in the laboratory and experiment results have also been presented. The results show that the MPC is able to track the deviation in the weather forecast and operate the battery by solving the optimal control problem to handle this deviation.