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Although photovoltaic power plants are suitable local energy sources in Micro Grid environments, when large plants are involved, partial shading and inaccurate modelling of the plant can affect both the design of the Micro Grid as well as the energy management process that allows for lowering the overall Micro Grid demand towards the main grid. To investigate the issue, a Photovoltaic Plant simulation model, based on a real life power plant, and an energy management system, based on a real life Micro Grid environment, have been integrated to evaluate the performance of a Micro Grid under partial shading conditions. Using a baseline energy production model as a reference, the energy demand of the Micro Grid has been computed in sunny and partial shading conditions. The experiments reveal that an estimation based on a simplified PV model can exceed by 65% the actual production. With regards to Micro Grid design, on sunny days, the expected costs, based on a simplified PV model, can be 5.5% lower than the cost based on the double inverter model. In single cloud scenarios, the underrating can reach 28.3%. With regard to the management process, if the energy yield is estimated by means of a simplified PV model, the actual cost can be from 17.1% to 21.5% higher than the theoretical cost expected at design time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Introduction of the collaborative paradigm for energy management in micro-grids. • Formulation of a bi-Objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming model for it. • Employment of the Augmented ϵ-constraint approach to solve the problem. • Evaluation of the proposed method in comparison with the Weighted-Sum technique. • Experiments prove the beneficial effects of collaborative energy management policies. In micro-grids, distributed energy generation based on renewable sources allows reducing the fossil fuel emissions. In order to manage the limited availability of renewable sources and to meet users' requirements, a proper scheduling of both tasks and storage activities is needed. Moreover, the difficulty of storing energy on a large scale represents an opportunity for the micro-grid actors to collaborate for better balancing energy supply and demand. Collaboration may be achieved through the application of suitable energy management policies tackling the specific consumers' needs. We address the Energy Management Problem in a micro-grid with collaboration among users. Specifically, a building is considered where each apartment can use both Shared and Local energy resources, the former managed by a Building Manager (BM). The problem is formulated through Bi-objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming , maximizing both the BM and the apartments' profits and solved through the Augmented ϵ -Constraint approach. Numerical results, obtained on a set of realistic scenarios, are compared to those of the Weighted Sum method and evaluated according to proper performance metrics. The approach flexibility, in terms of selected management policies, is also discussed. Finally, the superiority of the collaborative paradigm versus the non-collaborative one is experimentally proven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]