Technical and economic evaluation of remote DC and AC microgrids

Abstract

Microgrids (MGs) are increasingly deployed around the world as the most suitable solution to expand energy access in energy-poor countries, and even in remote areas of high-income countries. In addition to the previous studies performed on MGs, this paper proposes a framework to evaluate the technical and economic benefits of implementing the AC, DC and hybrid MGs In the first stage, economic analysis has been carried out to determine the optimal size of PV system, wind system connected to each AC or DC MG with an energy storage bank system, according to the meteorological and load profile data of the selected remote area in El Fahs (north of Tunisia). In the second part of work, the power loss, voltage drop and system efficiency has been presented for the AC and DC MGs. Moreover, an experimental validation has been carried out in order to prove the voltage drop and the power loss for the case of a DC MG. This study justifies that DC microgrid is potentially more beneficial than AC MG. But, the stability of the system during short-circuit fault is the main problem in the DC MG. For that reason, it can be concluded that the protection and control of DC MGs should be the crucial areas of future studies.