Design and operation of renewable energy microgrids under uncertainty towards green deal and minimum carbon emissions

Abstract

The regulations regarding the Paris Agreement are inevitable to keep the global temperature rise within 2 °C. Moreover, integrating renewable energy-based equipment and adopting new ways of producing energy resources, for example Power to Gas (PtG) technology, becomes essential because of the current environmental, economic, and political concerns. It is vital to supply the growing energy demand with the increasing population. Uncertainty must be considered in the transition phase since parameters regarding the electricity demand, carbon tax policies, and intermittency of renewable energy-based equipment have intermittent nature. A multi-period two-stage stochastic MILP model is proposed in this work where the wind speed, solar irradiance, temperature, power demand, carbon emission trading (CET) price, and CO2 emission limit are considered uncertain parameters. Three stochastic case studies with scenarios including different combinations of the aforementioned uncertain parameters are investigated. Results show that more renewable energy-based equipment with higher rated power values is chosen as the sanctions get stricter. In addition, the optimality of PtG technology is also investigated for a specific location. Implementing the CO2 emission limit as an uncertain parameter instead of including CET price as uncertain results in lower annual CO2 emission rates and higher net present cost values.