What is it about?

In this article, a Particle-Swarm-Optimization technique is used to find out the optimum combination of wind-tidal-PV generation size and location that maximizes the reliability of the system. In this case, the reliability is defined as the total energy-not-supplied, therefore, the optimum combination of renewables is the one that minimizes the energy not supplied such that electrical supply interruption duration and frequency are also minimum.

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Why is it important?

In most cases, the deployment of renewable generation is evaluated in terms of total cost and return of the investment, as requested by the local utility. This allows the investors and manufacturers to propose large wind farms and extended PV areas that produce significant amount of power which is injected into the grid even at the distribution level, and some of it could be unexploited if not required. A different approach is to consider reliability as the design driver, which allows a certain combination of renewables to be complementary and maximize the use of its energy at all times.

Perspectives

Although renewable generation has been extensively studied in the past decades, several countries around the world are still struggling to provide innovative solutions to their energy problems. In most cases, technological limitations pose a barrier to implement latest advances in distribution management, and implementation costs are still a significant constraint difficult to overcome. In light of the resources that each location has available, our approach provides a feasible starting point that could help in understanding energy interactions and feasible solutions that could be energy self-reliant.

Mr Angel Andres Recalde
University of Nottingham

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Design optimization for reliability improvement in microgrids with wind – tidal – photovoltaic generation, Electric Power Systems Research, November 2020, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2020.106540.
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