Abstract

A microgrid consists of electrical generation sources, energy storage assets, loads, and the ability to function independently, or connect and share power with other electrical grids. Thefocus of this work is on the behavior of a microgrid, with both diesel generator and photovoltaic resources, whose heating or cooling loads are influenced by local meteorological conditions. Themicrogrid's fuel consumption and energy storage requirement were then examined as a function of the atmospheric conditions used by its energy management strategy (EMS). A fuel-optimal EMS, able to exploit meteorological forecasts, was developed and evaluated using a hybrid microgrid simulation. Weather forecast update periods ranged from 15 min to 24 h. Four representative meteorological sky classifications (clear, partly cloudy, overcast, or monsoon) were considered. Forall four sky classifications, fuel consumption and energy storage requirements increased linearly with the increasing weather forecast interval. Larger forecast intervals lead to degraded weather forecasts, requiring more frequent charging/discharging of the energy storage, increasing both the fuel consumption and energy storage design requirements. The significant contributions of this work include the optimal EMS and an approach for quantifying the meteorological forecast effects on fuel consumption and energy storage requirements on microgrid performance. The findings of this study indicate that the forecast interval used by the EMS affected both fuel consumption and energy storage requirements, and that the sensitivity of these effects depended on the 24-hour sky conditions.

Highlights

  • Microgrids are electrical energy networks that have four attributes: generation, storage, loads, and the ability to operate independently or share power with other networks [1]

  • The results indicated better prediction accuracy over Neural Network (NN) and simple support vector regression

  • The observed trend means the PV is less likely to have an impact on the overall initial energy storage design metric for a microgrid, as the energy storage will begin building up a reserve of energy prior to atmospheric disturbances, which is perhaps more desirable

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Summary

Introduction

Microgrids are electrical energy networks that have four attributes: generation, storage, loads, and the ability to operate independently or share power with other networks [1]. A microgrid’s efficiency can be affected by local meteorological conditions if it uses PV or has loads that are temperature dependent. Load and PV forecasts can be used to operate a microgrid’s diesel generators at peak efficiency saving fuel and requiring less energy storage as described in [2,3]. The effect of meteorological forecast update periods on microgrid performance in terms of fuel consumption and energy storage are investigated. To establish a baseline calibration, a Persistence Weather Forecast (PWF) strategy was used This strategy held a forecasted temperature and irradiance constant over a predefined forecast period. An Energy Management System (EMS) was developed to estimate the electrical load and issue fuel optimal generator and storage commands to the microgrid.

Meteorological Forecasting
PV Power Forecasting
Load Forecasting
Energy Management Systems
Microgrid Component Models
Generator Model
Energy Storage Model
Photovoltaic Array with Collocated Storage Model
Electrical Load Model
Energy Management System
Meteorological Forecast Study
Meteorological Conditions
Microgrid and Electrical Load
Results and Discussion
Conclusions and Future Work

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