Swanepoel, C.G.Van Schoor, G.Uren, K.R.Rens, A.P.J.2020-04-232020-04-232020Swanepoel, C.G. et al. 2020. Microgrid energy management through levelized cost of energy metric. International SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA Conference, 29-31 Jan, Cape Town, South Africa: #904103. [https://doi.org/10.1109/SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA48453.2020.9041037]978-1-7281-4162-6 (Online)http://hdl.handle.net/10394/34574https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9041037https://doi.org/10.1109/SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA48453.2020.9041037The abundance of solar energy in Africa provides the ideal opportunity to mitigate the concerns on price, reliability and voltage quality of electricity supply to end-users. Rooftop PV and local energy storage solutions in a microgrid where energy is well managed, could unlock significant savings in energy costs and improve voltage quality and reliability. Each microgrid is a unique use-case due to the variation in type, size and costing of energy resources, and the loading and billing structure. This paper presents a methodology to identify and select microgrid energy management objectives using levelized cost of energy as the reference metric. The theoretical framework is validated by implementation in a real microgrid and concludes that Li-Ion energy storage is still too expensive for grid-tied applications in South AfricaenMicrogridEnergy managementEnergy storageLevelized cost of energyEnergy arbitragePeak shavingPresentation