Assessment of renewable energy technologies in a standalone microgrid system

Abstract

The rapid growth of the global economy has led to a high demand of electric energy and utilization of fossil fuels to meet the power demand. This has motivated the utilities or independent power providers to incorporate renewable energy resources (RERs) into their power systems. Moreover, with the increasing concerns of environmental protection and fossil fuel depletion, RERS are universally accepted as the potential alternative to fossil fuels. Consequently, this work aims at exploring the application of the photovoltaic (PV), electric storage system (ESS) and wind turbine generator (WTG) in a microgrid (MG) system to reduce the total annual cost (TAC) and environmental impact reduction index (EIR) while maintaining the power system constraints and load requirements. The problem is formulated by using the fmincon optimization solver in the MATLAB environment to assess the environmental and economic effects of utilizing RERs in a MG system. The values of TAC and EIR obtained in the study are compared with the base case study where a reciprocating engine is only utilized to meet the same power demand without using RERs and ESS. The results obtained from the study indicate that a WTG/PV/ ESS/ diesel generator MG system has achieved good results. The outcomes of the study demonstrate that utilization of green technologies is suitable for achieving global sustainable energy development.