Innovative Remote Micro-Grid Systems

Abstract

Most small islands and remote communities around the world today are dependent on imported fossil fuels for most of their energy requirements. High fuel costs in recent time have translated into tremendous increases in the cost of energy generation in remote areas. Solar and wind power technologies are clean, affordable, readily available, and sustainable and can replace or supplement generators. Hybrid energy systems integrate these renewable energy technologies with diesel generators, inverters and batteries to provide grid quality power in remote areas not connected to a utility grid. Such an isolated grid is known as Remote Micro-Grid and is widely recognized as the remote area electrification technology for the 21 st century. It is predicted that there will be a 21% increase in capacity for the remote micro-grid market by 2017, from 349 MW to 1.1 GW with a projected total revenue of more than $10 billion. One solution to save fuel in a diesel generator is to enable the engine to operate at variable speeds in direct relation to the electrical load demand. The author has developed an innovative variable speed generator technology (patent pending) with high penetration of renewable energy. There are a number of applications where the power demand varies greatly that can benefit from the new technology which maintains constant voltage and frequency while adjusting the engine speed to power demand. This paper will present case studies on previous hybrid power system projects and the limitations of the existing technology. Case studies on applications in remote mining, holiday resort and remote mobile telecom base stations are described.