Economic and environmental analysis of a co-generation power system with the incorporation of renewable energy resources

Abstract

Combined heat and power is utilized to generate electric power and produce thermal energy for various applications. In view of this, we investigate the economic savings and environmental effects of using a co-generation system that is made-up of microturbine (MT) and other auxiliaries instead of using only a gas boiler. This paper addresses the power-scheduling problem among the generating units in a microgrid (MG) system that comprises of photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine generator (WTG), MT, grid and battery storage system (BSS). The optimal operation of the proposed MG system is obtained by considering the demand response, operating costs and other key performance indicators. The objective function of this study is to minimize the cost of energy, NPC, emission, operating cost, fuel cost and grid energy purchase. HOMER software is utilized to accomplish the goal of the research work. In this paper, a model is developed to investigate the performances of the system having considered the economic and environmental significance of utilizing renewable energy resources (RERs) in a MG system. The results of the simulation analysis reveal that the proposed model is cost effective to reduce the operating costs of the MG system with the application of RERs.