Proposed method for evaluating controllers of battery-based storage system in maximum demand reductions

•Two new indices are introduced to show the results being benchmarked.•Maximum power demand reductions should be the key measure of the controllers.•The indices are used to showcase the juxtaposition of different controllers.•Other system parameters are proposed to be measured during peak reductions. Monthly maximum power demand is the highest power demand that ever happen in a month. Governments or utility companies plan the additional generation capacity over a projected period to meet the monthly maximum power demands. However, battery-based energy storage systems (BESS) can be used to reduce the maximum power demands, hence deferring the additional generation capacity, and providing substantial financial savings to customers and utility companies. Controllers are the central intelligence of BESS for performing the peak demand reductions. This paper begins with a literature review of the existing controllers for BESS to perform peak reductions. Several shortcomings are then highlighted with regards to the existing controllers. Firstly, there is no well-thought-out method for evaluating the true performances of the controllers in peak reductions. Hence, researchers are not able to show the true abilities of their controllers accompanied by new features such as forecasting techniques and optimization algorithms. Secondly, researchers use the daily peak reductions as the prime target of their controllers instead of the monthly maximum demand reductions. Also, many fails to recognize the importance of monitoring the other technical parameters such as the voltage magnitudes, power factors, and system frequency during peak reductions. This paper proposes a new method by the means of two indices for measuring the true performances of BESS controllers. These indices are applied to juxtapose the true abilities of the existing controllers. The monthly maximum demand reductions are proposed as the prime target of the controllers. Other essential parameters such as voltage magnitude are proposed to be monitored and presented in this paper.