Negative correlation peak shaving control in a parking garage in Uppsala, Sweden

As the global transition away from fossil fuels accelerates, energy systems across the globe face a significant challenge. Given the high energy consumption of electric vehicle chargers, effective control is imperative to prevent local grid overload and congestion. In Uppsala, Sweden, a newly built parking garage includes 30 electric vehicle chargers, 62kW solar energy production, and a 60kW/137kWh battery energy storage system. This paper presents a control algorithm that uses a negative correlation scheme, adjusted to the local grid load, to effectively manage the battery energy storage. To improve the performance of the algorithm, a genetic optimization method is applied to find the best feasible daily load profile for the parking garage. The results indicate that peak load and energy consumption during grid high-load hours can be significantly reduced. This also results in an 9.5−12.8% reduction in electricity distribution fees at current prices as well as a peak load reduction of up to 50%. Increasing the battery capacity and charging/discharging power in the scenarios analysed within the study will improve the algorithm’s ability to achieve a satisfactory negative correlation between the load demand of the facility and the local grid. The proposed control algorithm lowers the facility’s impact on the local grid during high-load peak hours by utilizing the battery energy storage system at the parking garage. Moreover, it decreases the distribution fees of the facility by lowering the load peaks and shifting the electricity consumption to the morning and night. •Peak shaving that alleviates grid congestion while still providing monetary revenue.•A way of quantitatively evaluating the performance of peak shaving using correlation.•An example from a commercial parking garage including the facility’s load demand.•Grid data is included in the proposed optimized-based peak shaving method.•Analysis of how to alter the battery capacity to obtain perfect negative correlation.