Design, Sizing, and Energy Management of Microgrids in Harbor Areas: A Review

Anthony Roy,François Auger,Jean-Christophe Olivier,Emmanuel Schaeffer,Bruno Auvity

doi:10.3390/en13205314

Abstract

Energy efficiency and low-carbon energy systems are increasingly taken into account in seaports, due to climate change challenges and the evolution of environmental regulations. Thus, technological breakthroughs must be brought to numerous systems in harbors, such as harbor cranes, seaport vehicles, or the power supply of berthed vessels. These aspects may require the establishment of a microgrid in the harbor area. Microgrids have been subjected to a wide development on the mainland and islands, mostly for domestic loads. However, these are still scarce in harbor areas. Their development in such places faces several challenges, such as high power requirements, monitoring and management of a wide range of loads, energy policy framework, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a microgrid involves a study of sizing and of energy management, to avoid prohibitive costs and to verify load requirements. This paper provides a literature survey related to the development of microgrids in seaport areas. Firstly, the main components that occur in harbor microgrids are listed, and then a review of studies dealing with sizing and energy management is proposed. Finally, from this survey, innovative concepts and barriers are listed, with an up-to-date review of microgrid development in seaports worldwide.

Highlights

Maritime transport plays a key role in international exchanges, as it is estimated that 90% of the volume of goods traded worldwide transit by the sea [1]
We propose an up-to-date review of the sizing and energy management of microgrids in harbor areas to foster their development at full scale and to help in their design by identifying the possible criteria
The development of microgrids in harbor areas has been increasingly considered in recent years, in both academic and industrial studies

Summary

Introduction

Maritime transport plays a key role in international exchanges, as it is estimated that 90% of the volume of goods traded worldwide transit by the sea [1]. To reach the environmental goals, several major changes must be brought to the maritime transport sector, both for the vessels and for the harbors. All-electric ships appeared recently, with the launch of the first fully electric car ferry in Norway in 2015 [8,9]. In this kind of vessel, electrical energy can be generated by renewable sources and the use of storage systems is often considered, such as batteries [8,9], supercapacitors [10,11], and hydrogen [8]. To limit the use of fossil fuels as Energies 2020, 13, 5314; doi:10.3390/en13205314 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies

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