The increasing penetration of photovoltaic systems in public buildings highlights the need for demand-side management strategies that can improve self-consumption, reduce grid dependence, and enhance economic performance under realistic operating conditions. In Mediterranean climates, where photovoltaic generation and building demand often exhibit temporal mismatch, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of demand side management in public-building photovoltaic-battery microgrids remains limited, particularly across different countries and tariff structures. This study evaluates a unified demand side management framework based on intra-day load shifting that combines peak shaving and valley filling with seasonally adapted time-of-use tariffs. The methodology is applied to four real public-building microgrids in Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and Italy using validated 15-minute operational datasets. Three flexibility levels (5%, 10%, and 15% of daily demand) are examined to quantify demand side management impacts on netload profiles, self-consumption rate, selfsufficiency rate, and annual operating costs. Results show that demand side management consistently reshapes netload profiles and reduces operating costs by 3-13% across all pilot sites, with the magnitude of technical benefits depending on photovoltaic-to-load ratios and system size. Smaller systems exhibit improvements, while larger systems mainly benefit from reduced export peaks and enhanced operational stability. The findings highlight tariff differentiation as a key driver of demand side management effectiveness with a scalable, cost-effective strategy for improving the technoeconomic performance of microgrids in Mediterranean public buildings.
Demand-side management in photovoltaic-battery microgrids: A multi-country assessment for Mediterranean public buildings
Celli G.;Mocci S.;
2026-01-01
Abstract
The increasing penetration of photovoltaic systems in public buildings highlights the need for demand-side management strategies that can improve self-consumption, reduce grid dependence, and enhance economic performance under realistic operating conditions. In Mediterranean climates, where photovoltaic generation and building demand often exhibit temporal mismatch, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of demand side management in public-building photovoltaic-battery microgrids remains limited, particularly across different countries and tariff structures. This study evaluates a unified demand side management framework based on intra-day load shifting that combines peak shaving and valley filling with seasonally adapted time-of-use tariffs. The methodology is applied to four real public-building microgrids in Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and Italy using validated 15-minute operational datasets. Three flexibility levels (5%, 10%, and 15% of daily demand) are examined to quantify demand side management impacts on netload profiles, self-consumption rate, selfsufficiency rate, and annual operating costs. Results show that demand side management consistently reshapes netload profiles and reduces operating costs by 3-13% across all pilot sites, with the magnitude of technical benefits depending on photovoltaic-to-load ratios and system size. Smaller systems exhibit improvements, while larger systems mainly benefit from reduced export peaks and enhanced operational stability. The findings highlight tariff differentiation as a key driver of demand side management effectiveness with a scalable, cost-effective strategy for improving the technoeconomic performance of microgrids in Mediterranean public buildings.
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