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In the present paper, a new approach to the management of energy resources in the Research and Technology Centre of Energy (CRTEn -Tunisia) is proposed and evaluated by the monitoring of a PV installation realized for the cooperation project DE.DU.ENER.T, using renewable energy and economic criteria. The aim of this project is to improve energy efficiency order to minimize the electricity cost consumed at the CRTEn laboratory. According to the bills of electricity received, we noticed that there is a high consumption of electrical current. So, we targeted to install a photovoltaic field of 12KWc to reduce these bills by using the sustainable, green and clean sources. A theoretical study of the PV system sizing realized in order to know in the first hand the compatibility between the different equipment of this installation and to compare the results with those found by the SMA Sunny Design and PV*SOL software in the second hand. The experimental results show that the performance factor of the proposed system is 84.6%. Meanwhile, the cost of the energy generated by the proposed system is 0.045 USD/kWh, which means that the payback period, is about 11 years. The conclusion from this study is that the price of energy generated by PV systems in Tunisia is lower than the subsidized price of energy generated by fossil fuel.

In the present paper, a new approach for the management of energy resources in a research laboratory is proposed and evaluated. A simulation study for the photovoltaic (PV) installation was conducted under the Tunisian-Italian cooperation project DE.DU.ENER.T, using renewable energy and economic criteria. The aim of the study is to improve the energy efficiency in order to minimize the electricity cost consumed in the laboratory. A Hybrid Renewable Energy System consisting of a photovoltaic field of 12KWc was installed to reduce the exorbitant bills, due to intensive energy equipment such as drying ovens and workstations, using sustainable, green and clean sources. In addition, a sizing theoretical study of the PV system was primarily realized in order to evaluate, in the first hand, the compatibility between different equipment and to compare, in the second hand, with results given by two software SMA Sunny Design and PV*SOL. We designed and managed these systems optimally to promote the self-consumption of the electric energy in the LPT Research laboratory building. The focus would be on the use of the PV system by evaluating the impacts of electricity generation using renewable energy levied on electricity grid (energy injection and extraction) and the economies that can be achieved during operating hours. Results of PV-SYST study obtained by the simulation of our installation will be discussed.

The paper addresses the issue of the transition from a traditional electrical system without automation to a newer active and smart system allowing the possibility of implementing Demand Side Management policies, for little islands not supplied by the main grid. In particular, the paper focuses on two main topics related to the definition of: • an effective control, monitoring and communication system as a tool for the full exploitation of the opportunities given by Demand Response policies; • some solutions for the automation of the end-users’ electrical installations, in order to offer to the utility flexibility to be used for the improvement of the generation and distribution efficiency. After a brief discussion on the international regulatory framework on automation and ICT applications for power systems, the paper presents a feasibility study, based on the characteristics of the island of Lampedusa, of a hierarchical architecture of a suitable control system and of some DSM enabling solutions for residential end-users. The proposed solutions are defined taking into account some main elements: • distribution grids in small islands are generally equipped with outdated and hardly automatable devices; • utilities in small islands have reduced budget for new investments; • not less important, the most of the inhabitants has low income and unfamiliarity with automation. Therefore, main features of the proposed DSM enabling technologies are low cost and ease of use.