Sustainable and reliable hybrid AC/DC microgrid planning considering technology choice of equipment

Abstract

Abstract Today, the microgrid is not a new concept, and its diverse benefits for the grid and also consumers have been proven. One of the effective ways to enhance penetration level of the microgrids is to improve economic affordability. This can be achieved by defining an optimal investment plan which has been studied for the several past decades. Previous researches have been proposed a model which used a set of typical values as input parameters of the components. As a result, the optimization results may not be fully implementable in practice. In this regard, this paper proposes a new planning model for a hybrid AC–DCmicrogrid which selects the best technology from a set of commercial models already available in the market in addition to optimally selecting the size (number) of each equipment. Among the microgrid equipment, this capability is considered for storage batteries and wind turbines considering their variety of parameters and market models. The proposed model, while linear, takes into account the various parameters of the equipment in addition to the reliability and emission constraints. Results of implementing the proposed model on a test case demonstrated that outputs of the proposed model are more applicable to real practical projects.