A Smart Support System for Renewable Energy Sharing in Small Off-Grid Facilities: Evaluating the “Stronger Together” Prototype from Design Science and Protected Area Management Perspectives

Abstract

Visitor centres, ranger stations, research units, campsites, and similar small facilities associated with protected areas often operate in locations without grid access or with frequent power outages. This study aims to develop a Smart Energy Support System to ensure energy continuity in these facilities. The system prioritizes self-consumption; when battery voltage falls below predefined thresholds, it draws support from an eligible neighbouring source and activates a backup source when local support is insufficient. The findings show that, at prototype scale, the system can demonstrate low-voltage detection, source selection, visualization of energy sharing, and source-use recording. However, sensor calibration, energy-measurement units, sender–receiver meter reconciliation, battery management, and field safety were not validated. The prototype should therefore be regarded not as a field-ready solution but as a research and educational platform requiring further development and controlled pilot testing for low-carbon and resilient energy management in small facilities associated with protected areas.

Keywords

• Protected Area Management
• Renewable Energy
• Microgrid
• Peer-To-Peer Energy Sharing
• Energy Resilience

Ethical Statement

The article complies with national and international research and publication ethics. Ethics Committee approval was not required for the study. This article is based on the academic development of the “Stronger Together” Smart Energy Support System project report. The prototype photographs and interface records used in the study were adapted from the original project documentation. The laboratory prototype involved no human participants, collected no personal data, and included no intervention involving living organisms. In future studies involving actual users or protected-area sites, all necessary ethical, privacy, environmental, safety, and legal permissions must be obtained before implementation.

Thanks

Author contributions: The final allocation of author contributions according to the CRediT taxonomy should be approved by all authors before submission to the journal. Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest has been reported in the current manuscript. Funding: No specific external funding has been reported for the study. Data availability: The prototype data analysed are limited to the component list, threshold rules, interface images, and source counters contained in the original project report; no new experimental dataset was generated.

Şebekeden Bağımsız Küçük Tesislerde Yenilenebilir Enerji Paylaşımı İçin Bir Akıllı Destek Sistemi: “Birlikte Daha Güçlü” Prototipinin Tasarım Bilimi ve Korunan Alan Yönetimi Açısından Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

Korunan alanlarla ilişkili ziyaretçi merkezleri, korucu istasyonları, araştırma birimleri, kamp alanları ve benzeri küçük tesisler çoğu zaman şebekenin bulunmadığı veya sık elektrik kesintilerinin yaşandığı bölgelerde faaliyet göstermektedir. Bu çalışma, söz konusu tesislerde enerji sürekliliğini sağlayabilmek için bir Akıllı Enerji Destek Sistemi’nin geliştirilmesini amaçlamaktadır. Sistem öz tüketimi önceliklendirmekte; batarya gerilimi belirlenen eşiklerin altına düştüğünde uygun komşu kaynaktan destek almakta, yerel kaynak yetersiz kaldığında ise yedek enerji kaynağını devreye sokmaktadır. Bulgular, sistemin düşük gerilim durumunu algılama, kaynak seçme, enerji paylaşımını görünür kılma ve kaynak kullanımını kaydetme işlevlerini prototip ölçeğinde gösterebildiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bununla birlikte sensör kalibrasyonu, enerji ölçüm birimleri, gönderen-alıcı sayaç uzlaştırması, batarya yönetimi ve saha güvenliği doğrulanmamıştır. Bu nedenle prototip, doğrudan saha uygulamasına hazır bir çözüm değil; korunan alanlarla ilişkili küçük tesislerde düşük karbonlu ve dayanıklı enerji yönetimi için geliştirilmesi ve kontrollü pilotlarla sınanması gereken bir araştırma ve eğitim platformu olarak değerlendirilmiştir.

Keywords

• Korunan Alan Yönetimi
• Yenilenebilir Enerji
• Mikro Şebeke
• Eşler Arası Enerji Paylaşımı
• Enerji Dayanıklılığı

Ethical Statement

The article complies with national and international research and publication ethics. Ethics Committee approval was not required for the study. This article is based on the academic development of the “Stronger Together” Smart Energy Support System project report. The prototype photographs and interface records used in the study were adapted from the original project documentation. The laboratory prototype involved no human participants, collected no personal data, and included no intervention involving living organisms. In future studies involving actual users or protected-area sites, all necessary ethical, privacy, environmental, safety, and legal permissions must be obtained before implementation.

Thanks

Author contributions: The final allocation of author contributions according to the CRediT taxonomy should be approved by all authors before submission to the journal. Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest has been reported in the current manuscript. Funding: No specific external funding has been reported for the study. Data availability: The prototype data analysed are limited to the component list, threshold rules, interface images, and source counters contained in the original project report; no new experimental dataset was generated.

References

1. Bennun, L., Fletcher, C., Cook, A., Wilson, D., Jobson, B., Asante-Owusu, R., Dakmejian, A., & Liu, Q. (2024). Guidance on biodiversity cumulative impact assessment for wind and solar developments and associated infrastructure. IUCN & The Biodiversity Consultancy. https://doi.org/10.2305/EHGE6100
2. Bennun, L., van Bochove, J., Ng, C., Fletcher, C., Wilson, D., Phair, N., & Carbone, G. (2021). Mitigating biodiversity impacts associated with solar and wind energy development: Guidelines for project developers. IUCN & The Biodiversity Consultancy. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2021.04.en
3. Dudley, N. (Ed.). (2008). Guidelines for applying protected area management categories. IUCN. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2008.PAPS.2.en
4. Eagles, P. F. J., McCool, S. F., & Haynes, C. D. A. (2002). Sustainable tourism in protected areas: Guidelines for planning and management. IUCN. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2002.PAG.8.en
5. González, I., & Calderón, A. J. (2019). Integration of open source hardware Arduino platform in automation systems applied to smart grids/micro-grids. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 36, 100557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2019.100557
6. Gregor, S., & Hevner, A. R. (2013). Positioning and presenting design science research for maximum impact. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 337–355. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2013/37.2.01
7. Guerrero, J. M., Vasquez, J. C., Matas, J., de Vicuña, L. G., & Castilla, M. (2011). Hierarchical control of droop-controlled AC and DC microgrids: A general approach toward standardization. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 58(1), 158–172. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2010.2066534
8. Hevner, A. R., March, S. T., Park, J., & Ram, S. (2004). Design science in information systems research. MIS Quarterly, 28(1), 75–105. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148625

9. Hirsch, A., Parag, Y., & Guerrero, J. (2018). Microgrids: A review of technologies, key drivers, and outstanding issues. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 90, 402–411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.03.040
10. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. (2018). IEEE standard for the specification of microgrid controllers (IEEE Std 2030.7-2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEESTD.2018.8340204
11. International Energy Agency. (2022). Unlocking the potential of distributed energy resources. https://www.iea.org/reports/unlocking-the-potential-of-distributed-energy-resources
12. International Renewable Energy Agency. (2020). Innovation landscape brief: Peer-to-peer electricity trading. https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2020/Jul/IRENA_Peer-to-peer_electricity_trading_2020.pdf
13. Kiesecker, J. M., Evans, J. S., Oakleaf, J. R., Dropuljić, K. Z., Vejnović, I., Rosslowe, C., Cremona, E., Bhattacharjee, A. L., Nagaraju, S. K., Ortiz, A., Robinson, C., Ferres, J. L., Zec, M., & Sochi, K. (2024). Land use and Europe’s renewable energy transition: Identifying low-conflict areas for wind and solar development. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12, 1355508. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1355508
14. Laayati, O., El Hadraoui, H., Guennoui, N., Bouzi, M., & Chebak, A. (2022). Smart energy management system: Design of a smart grid test bench for educational purposes. Energies, 15(7), 2702. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15072702
15. Leung, Y.-F., Spenceley, A., Hvenegaard, G., & Buckley, R. (Eds.). (2018). Tourism and visitor management in protected areas: Guidelines for sustainability. IUCN. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2018.PAG.27.en
16. Li, S., Oshnoei, A., Blaabjerg, F., & Anvari-Moghaddam, A. (2023). Hierarchical control for microgrids: A survey on classical and machine learning-based methods. Sustainability, 15(11), 8952. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118952
17. Mori, M., Gutiérrez, M., & Casero, P. (2021). Micro-grid design and life-cycle assessment of a mountain hut’s stand-alone energy system with hydrogen used for seasonal storage. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(57), 29706–29723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.11.155
18. Mori, M., Gutiérrez, M., Sekavčnik, M., & Drobnič, B. (2022). Modelling and environmental assessment of a stand-alone micro-grid system in a mountain hut using renewables. Energies, 15(1), 202. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15010202
19. Morstyn, T., Farrell, N., Darby, S. J., & McCulloch, M. D. (2018). Using peer-to-peer energy-trading platforms to incentivize prosumers to form federated power plants. Nature Energy, 3(2), 94–101. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0075-y
20. Nejabatkhah, F., Li, Y. W., Liang, H., & Reza Ahrabi, R. (2021). Cyber-security of smart microgrids: A survey. Energies, 14(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14010027
21. Olivares, D. E., Mehrizi-Sani, A., Etemadi, A. H., Cañizares, C. A., Iravani, R., Kazerani, M., Hajimiragha, A. H., Gomis-Bellmunt, O., Saeedifard, M., Palma-Behnke, R., Jiménez-Estévez, G. A., & Hatziargyriou, N. D. (2014). Trends in microgrid control. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 5(4), 1905–1919. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2013.2295514
22. Palizban, O., Kauhaniemi, K., & Guerrero, J. M. (2014). Microgrids in active network management—Part I: Hierarchical control, energy storage, virtual power plants, and market participation. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 36, 428–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.01.016
23. Parag, Y., & Sovacool, B. K. (2016). Electricity market design for the prosumer era. Nature Energy, 1(4), 16032. https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.32
24. Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A., & Chatterjee, S. (2007). A design science research methodology for information systems research. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(3), 45–77. https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222240302
25. Razavi, R., Gharipour, A., Fleury, M., & Akpan, I. J. (2019). Occupancy detection of residential buildings using smart meter data: A large-scale study. Energy and Buildings, 183, 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.11.025
26. Sousa, T., Soares, T., Pinson, P., Moret, F., Baroche, T., & Sorin, E. (2019). Peer-to-peer and community-based markets: A comprehensive review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 104, 367–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.01.036
27. Sreenath, S., Azmi, A. M., & Ismail, Z. A. M. (2023). Feasibility of solar hybrid energy system at a conservation park: Technical, economic, environmental analysis. Energy Reports, 9, 711–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.11.065
28. Taşcıkaraoğlu, A., & Erdinç, O. (2019). Paylaşımlı elektrik enerjisi depolama sisteminin kullanımına dayanan bir enerji yönetimi yaklaşımı. Avrupa Bilim ve Teknoloji Dergisi, 16, 589–604. https://doi.org/10.31590/ejosat.574062
29. Tushar, W., Saha, T. K., Yuen, C., Smith, D. B., & Poor, H. V. (2020). Peer-to-peer trading in electricity networks: An overview. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 11(4), 3185–3200. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2020.2969657
30. Warneryd, M., Håkansson, M., & Karltorp, K. (2020). Unpacking the complexity of community microgrids: A review of institutions’ roles for development of microgrids. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 121, 109690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.109690
31. Zhang, C., Wu, J., Zhou, Y., Cheng, M., & Long, C. (2018). Peer-to-peer energy trading in a microgrid. Applied Energy, 220, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.010
32. Zhao, F., Guo, Y., & Chen, B. (2024). A review of lithium-ion battery state of charge estimation methods based on machine learning. World Electric Vehicle Journal, 15(4), 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/wevj15040131
33. Zhou, Y., Wu, J., Long, C., & Ming, W. (2020). State-of-the-art analysis and perspectives for peer-to-peer energy trading. Engineering, 6(7), 739–753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2020.06.002
34. Zhu, T., Huang, Z., Sharma, A., Su, J., Irwin, D., Mishra, A. K., Menasché, D. S., & Shenoy, P. J. (2013). Sharing renewable energy in smart microgrids. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 4th International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (pp. 219–228). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2502524.2502554