Optimal planning of green microgrid with minimisation of environmental emissions

Abstract

In this article, optimal usage of renewable energy sources employed in an Indian microgrid network located in a rural district area of Orissa state, i.e. Sundargarh, is presented. Unlike the existing literature on microgrid development strategies for the Indian microgrid scenario, in this study, the known renewable energy fraction is being utilised to determine an optimal solution for the usage of different variants of possible renewable energy sources employed in a microgrid network. Note that while considering the operating cost, total net present cost, levelized cost of energy and environmental emissions herein the optimal size of wind, solar photovoltaic, hydro, diesel generator, power converter and battery are altogether considered for evaluating the performance of the microgrid network. Nevertheless, this study facilitates estimating the overall cost reduction in a heavily dispersed renewable energy-based microgrid network.