Municipal power plan optimisation accounting for environmental footprints

Abstract

This paper presents a model for municipal power planning, incorporating renewable power generation sources and energy storage facilities. It proposes a prototyping model architecture including photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and battery power storage, linked to the municipal power demands and interacting with the power grid. The planning model minimises the total system cost, comparing the pure monetary cost minimisation and accounting for the eco-cost related to the Greenhouse Gas and Water Footprints. The provided case study illustrates the economic feasibility of renewables integration, accounting for the eco-cost, maximising the use of photovoltaic panels. Adding the eco-cost minimises the footprints further and achieves a simultaneous reduction of total cost and footprints by approximately 25% and 39%. The sensitivity of the cost and footprints towards the life span of batteries was found marginal – compensated by increased power export to the grid, while the eventual life span reduction of wind turbines exerts a significant influence on the system performance in terms of cost and footprints – up to 40% compared to the base case. The sensitivity to the land availability for PV panels has also been found significant, obtaining cumulative reductions of the cost and footprints of 39% for cost and 50% from the benchmark case. The proposed method lays the foundation for a comprehensive energy planning method for municipalities to further include the social pillar of sustainability.