Cost Of Energy Generation Research Articles

Peak-Load Energy Management by Direct Load Control Contracts

We study direct load control contracts that utilities use to curtail customers’ electricity consumption during peak-load periods. These contracts place limits on the number of calls and total number of hours of power reduction per customer per year as well as the duration of each call. The stochastic dynamic program that determines how many customers to call and the timing and duration of each call for each day is an extremely difficult (NP-hard) optimization problem. We design a scenario-based approximation method to generate probabilistic allocation polices in a reasonable amount of time. Our approach consists of three approximations: deterministic approximation of demand, discretization of the expected demand, and aggregation/disaggregation of the resources. We show the relative information error resulting from the deterministic approximation is [Formula: see text], the discretization error is [Formula: see text], and the aggregation/disaggregation error is [Formula: see text], where n represents the length of the horizon. Finally, we show the total relative error is [Formula: see text]. Our error analysis establishes that our approximation method is near optimal. In addition, our extensive numerical experiments verify the high quality of our approximation approach. The error, conservatively measured, is quite small and has an average and standard deviation of 8.6% and 1.4%, respectively. We apply our solution approach to the data provided by three major utility companies in California. Overall, our study shows our procedure improves the savings in energy-generation cost by 37.7% relative to current practices. This paper was accepted by Chung Piaw Teo, optimization. Funding: The authors thank the UCLA Ziman Center’s Howard and Irene Levine Program in Housing and Social Responsibility and the Morrison Family Center for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics for generous funding. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4493 .

Techno-Economic Evaluation of a Hybrid Energy System for an Educational Institution: A Case Study

This study evaluates the technical, economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy resources (RER) for electricity supply to large size buildings in an educational institution. The cost of energy generation coupled with the epileptic power supply has led to the demand for an alternative source of energy supply to an education institution in Nigeria. The essence of renewable energy generation is becoming more glaring and a hybrid energy system (HES) is believed to deliver efficient and sustainable energy for the institutions; this paper aims to analyse the techno-economic assessment of a HES design setup at the College of Engineering, Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti for powering the university buildings; this grid connected system was assessed with various system configurations was simulated using hybrid optimization model for electric renewables (HOMER) software and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) with the consideration of the HES benefits was developed. The results obtained from the simulation indicate that the grid and solar Photovoltaic (PV) system provide an optimal system that adequately meets the load demand with more renewable energy integration and this significantly reduces the cost of energy by 45% and also causes a 32.09% reduction in CO2 emissions; this configuration is environmentally sustainable and financially suitable for electrifying an educational institution.

Concurrent 9. Presentation for: Evaluating Australia’s energy commodity resources potential for a net-zero emission future

Presented on Wednesday 18 May: Session 9 Australia’s future energy production will increasingly be focused on developing clean energy resources to achieve the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To achieve this, an understanding of Australia’s natural gas resources and greenhouse gas storage potential is needed to facilitate the rapid implementation and expansion of low-emission technologies. While Australia continues to be a net gas exporter, additional volumes are needed to support future domestic manufacturing capabilities. These extra volumes can be produced from existing accumulations that are close to infrastructure or can be unlocked from highly prospective, yet underexplored regions. The coming decade will see a dramatic change in the energy mix that supports the Australian economy. A major driver will be the development of a hydrogen production industry, initially using fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (CCS) until the cost of hydrogen production from renewable energy becomes more reliable and competitive. The expansion and projected lower costs of renewable energy generation via solar and wind will ultimately replace much of the non-renewable energies for hydrogen production. Geoscience Australia’s energy-related work program is focused on supporting Australia’s energy transformation assessments of untapped resource potential onshore include the evaluation of geologic hydrogen occurrences, the presence and suitability of subsurface salt horizons for hydrogen storage and the distribution of effective reservoir and seal fairways for underground carbon storage. While offshore, new data from Geoscience Australia’s sea-floor mapping project will improve the understanding of suitable areas for offshore wind farms. Results from these research activities are being made publicly available either through Geoscience Australia’s data portal and its data repository. To access the presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

Power system static and dynamic security studies for the 1st phase of Crete Island Interconnection

The island of Crete is currently served by an autonomous electrical system being fed by oil-fired (Heavy fuel or light Diesel oil) thermal power plants and renewables (wind and PVs). The peak load and annual electric energy consumption are approximately 600 MW and 3 TWh respectively; wind and photovoltaic parks contribute approximately 20% of the electricity needs of the island. Due to the expensive fuel used, the Cretan power system has very high electric energy generation cost compared to the Greek mainland. On the other side the limited size of the system poses severe limitations to the penetration of renewable energy sources, not allowing to further exploit the high wind and solar potential of the island. According to the Ten Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) of the Greek TSO (Independent Power Transmission Operator S.A. IPTO S.A.), the interconnection of Crete to the mainland Transmission System of Greece will be realized through two links: A 150 kV HVAC link between the Peloponnese and the Crete (Phase I) and a HVDC link connecting the metropolitan area of Athens with Crete (Phase II). The total length of submarine and underground cable of the HVAC link will be approximately 174km; it is at the limits of the AC technology and the longest and deepest worldwide at 150 kV level. A number of studies have been conducted by a joint group of IPTO and Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) for the design of this interconnection. This paper presents briefly the power system static and dynamic studies conducted for the design of the AC link and its operation. Firstly, the paper presents the main results of the static security study regarding the calculation of the maximum power transfer capability of the link and the selection of the reactive power compensation scheme of the cable. Results from dynamic security analysis studies are also presented. The small-signal stability analysis concludes that a new (intra-area) electromechanical oscillation is introduced to the National System after the interconnection. The damping of the electromechanical oscillations is sufficient; however the operation of power system stabilizers at power plants located both at the mainland and at Crete power system can increase significantly the damping of important oscillation modes. Finally with respect to the risk of loss of synchronism after a significant disturbance in the system of Crete, such as a three-phase fault (“transient stability”)- enough safety margin is estimated by means of Critical Clearing Time calculations.

Evaluating Australia’s energy commodity resources potential for a net-zero emission future

Australia’s future energy production will increasingly be focused on developing clean energy resources to achieve the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To achieve this, an understanding of Australia’s natural gas resources and greenhouse gas storage potential is needed to facilitate the rapid implementation and expansion of low-emission technologies. While Australia continues to be a net gas exporter, additional volumes are needed to support future domestic manufacturing capabilities. These extra volumes can be produced from existing accumulations that are close to infrastructure or can be unlocked from highly prospective, yet underexplored regions. The coming decade will see a dramatic change in the energy mix that supports the Australian economy. A major driver will be the development of a hydrogen production industry, initially using fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (CCS) until the cost of hydrogen production from renewable energy becomes more reliable and competitive. The expansion and projected lower costs of renewable energy generation via solar and wind will ultimately replace much of the non-renewable energies for hydrogen production. Geoscience Australia’s energy-related work program is focused on supporting Australia’s energy transformation assessments of untapped resource potential onshore include the evaluation of geologic hydrogen occurrences, the presence and suitability of subsurface salt horizons for hydrogen storage and the distribution of effective reservoir and seal fairways for underground carbon storage. While offshore, new data from Geoscience Australia’s sea-floor mapping project will improve the understanding of suitable areas for offshore wind farms. Results from these research activities are being made publicly available either through Geoscience Australia’s data portal and its data repository.

Hybrid concentrated solar biomass (HCSB) systems for cogeneration: Techno-economic analysis for beef abattoirs in New South Wales, Australia

The clean energy transition and commitments to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century are most challenging for energy-intensive industries, like meat processing, that have traditionally relied on fossil fuels for heat and power. This study examines technical design options of combined heat and power (CHP) systems for beef abattoirs. Specifically, we investigate the technical and economic viability of a novel hybrid concentrated solar biomass (HCSB) system for a major beef abattoir in Australia. Two prospective design options are presented: The first considers an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system integrated to a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant and an existing biomass boiler. The second option consists of a hybrid combined cycle (HCC) system fed by an existing biomass boiler, a solar thermal system and biogas, from anaerobic digestion (AD) of liquid waste streams of the abattoir. The two design options are simulated, considering operational modes and energy demand of the abattoir. Costs of energy generation [AU$/MWh] and emission abatement potential [tCO2-e], for different solar field sizes [ha], are discussed for both cases. The simple retrofit ORC HCSB solution is characterized by easy integration, but can only cover a fraction of the required electricity. The more sophisticated HCC HCSB system presents a more economical solution, as it can provide 100% renewable heat at a cost of 66.0 AU$/MWhth; and up to 65% of electricity at a cost of 151.7 AU$/MWhel. The findings of this study highlight the opportunity for HCSB plants for industries with low- to medium (40–250 °C) heating demand.

Techno-Economic Power Dispatching of Combined Heat and Power Plant Considering Prohibited Operating Zones and Valve Point Loading

Co-generation units (i.e., combined heat and power plants—CHPs) are playing an important role in fulfilling the heat and power demand in the energy system. Due to the depletion of fossil fuels and rising carbon footprints in the environment, it is necessary to develop some alternatives as well as energy efficient operating strategies. By utilising the waste heat from thermal plants, cogeneration units help to decrease energy generation costs as well as reduce emitted pollutants. The combined heat and power economic dispatch (CHPED) operation strategy is becoming an important optimisation task in the energy efficient operation of a power system. The optimisation of CHPED is quite complex due to the dual dependence of heat and power in the cogeneration units. The valve point loading effect and prohibited operating zones of a thermal power unit make the objective function non-linear and non-convex. In this work, to address these issues more effectively, the viable operational area of the CHP and power system network losses are considered for the optimal allocation of power output and heat generation. A metaheuristic optimisation algorithm is proposed to solve the CHPED to minimize the fuel supply, thus satisfying the constraints. To handle equality and inequality constraints, an external penalty factor-based constraint handling technique is used. The success of the proposed CHPED algorithm is tested on three considered cases. In all the cases, the results show the effectiveness in terms of solution accuracy and better convergence.

Design and simulation of an effective backup power supply for academic institutions in Nigeria: A case study of NDA postgraduate school

This research work is aimed to mitigate the adverse effect of numerous portable generators used in academic environments due to the unstable power supply experienced in Nigeria. Data for the study on the existing backup, availability hours from the national grid, and load demand for the area of study were obtained from the residents of the campus, facility managers, and Kaduna Distribution Company as the grid supplier from August 2017 to December 2020. The average load of the campus was obtained to be 80kW. These were used as a baseline to obtain the required size and quantity of material to generate the backup power needed. A total ampere-hour requirement of the battery to be used was obtained to be 4,278.07Ah considering the average battery depth of discharge of 80%. This resulted in a total number of cells required to be 134 considering a battery with a 200Ah rating and a nominal voltage rating of 48V. A solar photovoltaic (PV) system rating of 166.4kW is required to sufficiently charge the battery bank and also serve the load. This amounts to a minimum of 5 panels per string connected in series and 34 number panels per string connected in parallel based on which the total number of panels required summed up to 666. The inverter rating for the load was obtained to be 150 kVA with a total load of 100 kVA, an efficiency of 80%, and an average future expansion of 20 %. A diesel generator rating of 100kVA with a starting kVA rating of 113.64kVA is required to efficiently serve the load considering future expansion of 1.1 and operating efficiency of 80 %. These obtained parameters were simulated using MATLAB/Simulink to test the feasibility of the backup systems. The generation cost of each backup was calculated based on which solar PV with battery bank has an initial energy generation cost of 81.9 ₦/kWh and a future energy generation cost of 0.27 ₦/kWh while diesel generator has an initial energy generation cost of 1602.04 ₦/kWh and a future energy generation cost of 8.07 ₦/kWh as such, PV has the least energy cost and more economical for the academic environment.

An Economic Dispatch Method of Microgrid Based on Fully Distributed ADMM Considering Demand Response

Aiming at the problem that the existing alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) cannot realize totally distributed computation, a totally distributed improved ADMM algorithm that combines logarithmic barrier function and virtual agent is proposed. We also investigate economic dispatch for microgrids considering demand response based on day-ahead real-time pricing (RTP), which forms a source-load-storage collaborative optimization scheme. First, three general distributed energy sources (DERs), renewable energy resources (RESs), conventional DERs and energy storage systems (ESSs), are considered in the method. Second, the goal of economic dispatch is to minimize the sum of three energy generation costs and implement the optimal power allocation of dispatchable DERs. Specifically, the approach not only inherits the fast computational speed of ADMM but also uses barrier function and virtual agent to handle inequality and equality, respectively. Moreover, the approach requires no coordination center and only the communication between current agent and adjacent agent to achieve totally distributed solution for every iteration, which can preserve information privacy well. Finally, a 30-node microgrid system is used for case analysis, and the simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach. It can be found that, the proposed approach converges to the optima when p = 0.01, v = 100, t0 = 0.01 and μ = 2.

A PV-Biomass off-grid hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for rural electrification: Design, optimization and techno-economic-environmental analysis

This research aims to bridge the gaps to produce sustainable energy cost-effectively and technically efficient. The paper explores the techno-economic-environmental viability of photovoltaic (PV)/biomass energy potential for a rural village, Sidhwanbet, Punjab, India. The data investigation was performed by HOMER Pro v3.14 software. A hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) was designed, simulated and modelled to ensure the continuous energy supply for 770 households. The proposed optimal HRES consists of a PV module, biomass generator, converter and battery with the static specification and further improved by optimization. The optimal HRES out of the best five configurations was elected with Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) based on net present cost (NPC), cost of energy generation (COE), operating cost (ƠƇ), initial capital cost (ƗƇƇ), energy generation (ĖƓ), and a renewable fraction (Ȓϯ). The selected optimal HRES has been analyzed for economic, renewable energy and environmental aspects. The sensitivity study had performed while considering the discount and inflation rate. A simulation was performed for a 10-kW biomass generator, 1.1 kW solar array, five lithium-ion batteries, and a 3.96 kW converter. Results revealed that the PV's payback period (PBP) was 1.58 years, less than the useful life of optimal HRES. The cost of constructing an HRES for 25 years was equivalent to $21087, including initial cost, operating, replacement, and project costs. Thus, 35.6% of the necessary electricity is generated with PV and 64.4% biomass under optimal conditions for a 100% renewable energy integration. The CO2/year emission performance of optimal HRES is much better than Grid-only and PV-diesel generators. This technique may be used in rural regions in every other developing nation.

Performance Optimization of a Ten Check MPPT Algorithm for an Off-Grid Solar Photovoltaic System

In order to operate a solar photovoltaic (PV) system at its maximum power point (MPP) under numerous weather conditions, it is necessary to achieve uninterrupted optimal power production and to minimize energy losses, energy generation cost, and payback time. Under partial shading conditions (PSC), the formation of multiple peaks in the power voltage characteristic curve of a PV cell puzzles conventional MPP tracking (MPPT) algorithms trying to identify the global MPP (GMPP). Meanwhile, soft-computing MPPT algorithms can identify the GMPP even under PSC. Drawbacks such as structural complexity, computational complexity, huge memory requirements, and difficult implementation all affect the viability of soft-computing algorithms. However, those drawbacks have been successfully overcome with a novel ten check algorithm (TCA). To improve the performance of the TCA in terms of MPPT speed and efficiency, a novel concept of data arrangement is introduced in this paper. The proposed structure is referred to as Optimized TCA (OTCA). A comparison of the proposed OTCA and classic TCA algorithms was conducted for standard benchmarks. The results proved the superiority of the OTCA algorithm compared to both TCA and flower pollination (FPA) algorithms. The major advantage of OTCA in MPPT stems from its speed as compared to TCA and FPA, with almost 86% and 90% improvement, respectively.

Optimization Approach for the Aggregation of Flexible Consumers

In an electric distribution system, the management of peak demands is becoming increasingly difficult. Every method we have to flatten the consumption curve greatly reduces the energy generation costs, CO2 emissions, and congestion in the generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Therefore, we can act on consumers’ consumption, especially when we know that some consumers can be interested in reducing their consumption levels for monetary compensations. This can be done by reporting a part of consumption or shifting it. For this, a new profession called aggregation is born to manage the flexible consumers and meet the network requirements. To maximize their revenues, aggregators need to own an intelligent system to manage their portfolio of flexible consumers. They should optimize the way they modify the load curve of their flexible assets by respecting the system requirements and a set of consumer constraints. In this article, we address this task by proposing a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation for two different modes: The economic mode (Evaluation of the potential of the portfolio to generate benefits. The aggregator uses this mode to make bids on the energy market) and the dispatch mode (to be used in an operational situation to respect the bids already submitted). Experimentation studies on real and random in-stances (>1000 instances) demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MILP.

Performance Analysis of Bio-Energy Based Power Generation System in Nigeria Using Rice Husk Feedstock

Bio-energy which is the energy resources derived from organic matter has contributed significantly to primary energy supply in most developed countries of the world. The extensive use of biomass for electricity generation started recently as a more efficient option of providing energy. To encourage investment in this area, detail analysis on the prospect of Biomass energy generation system in Nigeria context need to be carried out. In line with this, this study assesses the viability of setting up a Biomass Energy Plant in Nigeria using rice husk. It determine the availability of rice husk for the project and identify the economic advantage of using rice husk as a feedstock in generating electricity while evaluating the energy conversion technology adopted with consideration on its environmental impact. The proposed plant location is Abakiliki Rice Mill complex and Gasification technology was adopted for the bio conversion process. Data on the feedstock availability was collected by direct measurement of the resources at the various mill dump site in the Rice Mill Complex and analyzed using Python analytical and visualization tools (Numpy and Seaborn). The primary source of data for the analysis is data gotten from the field and Nigeria Energy Regulatory Council (NERC) while the secondary source of data is data from related work over the internet. The outcome of the study showed that the Rice Complex have the capacity to produce the quantity of rice husk required to generate 499,320KWh of electricity per year using Bio-Energy plant. Also, the mass of rice husk produced is significantly higher in the month of October, November and December due to the weather condition (dry season) and the high demand of rice as the result of the festivity (Christmas celebration). When the performance of the existing system and the proposed Bio-Energy plant was compared in terms of per Kilowatt cost of energy generation, it was observed that the new system outperformed the existing one. This is traceable to the good caloric value of rice husk and its availability in very large quantity at no cost. To determine the system’s sustainability, the financial feasibility of operating a Biomass plant in Nigeria was also carried out; levelised cost, simple payback period and return on investment (ROI) as important financial metrics were calculated using real data.

An analysis of the 10 MW Butoni wind farm in the Tropical Southwest Pacific Island of Fiji

This study carries out an analysis of the 10 MW Butoni wind farm in the tropical southwest Pacific island of Fiji using 6 years of uninterrupted near-surface wind observations (2013–2018). The standard wind-industry software, WAsP is used to analyse and evaluate the wind characteristics of the wind farm and the surrounding areas. The modelled and operational AEP are discussed with the related economic analysis together with the main causes for the under-performance of the wind farm. The results revealed that the mean wind speed, power density and the AEP at the Butoni wind farm are below the utility-scale standard of 6.4 m/s, 300 W/m2 and 500 MWh/year/turbine respectively, at 55 m above ground level (AGL). The main reason for the under-performance of the wind farm is that it was commissioned for a low mean wind speed regime of Wind Power Class 1. The wind farm has a lower-than-expected capacity factor of 5.4% and a higher wind shear coefficient of 0.35. An economic analysis revealed that the payback time is 24.5 years, and the cost of energy generation is FJD $ 0.55/kWh.

Energy Transition Planning with High Penetration of Variable Renewable Energy in Developing Countries: The Case of the Bolivian Interconnected Power System

The transition to a more environmentally friendly energy matrix by reducing fossil fuel usage has become one of the most important goals to control climate change. Variable renewable energy sources (VRES) are a central low-carbon alternative. Nevertheless, their variability and low predictability can negatively affect the operation of power systems. On this issue, energy-system-modeling tools have played a fundamental role. When exploring the behavior of the power system against different levels of VRES penetration through them, it is possible to determine certain operational and planning strategies to balance the variations, reduce the operational uncertainty, and increase the supply reliability. In many developing countries, the lack of such proper tools accounting for these effects hinders the deployment potential of VRES. This paper presents a particular energy system model focused on the case of Bolivia. The model manages a database gathered with the relevant parameters of the Bolivian power system currently in operation and those in a portfolio scheduled until 2025. From this database, what-if scenarios are constructed allowing us to expose the Bolivian power system to a set of alternatives regarding VRES penetration and Hydro storage for that same year. The scope is to quantify the VRES integration potential and therefore the capacity of the country to leapfrog to a cleaner and more cost-effective energy system. To that aim, the unit-commitment and dispatch optimization problem are tackled through a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) that solves the cost objective function within its constraints through the branch-and-cut method for each scenario. The results are evaluated and compared in terms of energy balancing, transmission grid capability, curtailment, thermal generation displacement, hydro storage contribution, and energy generation cost. In the results, it was found that the proposed system can reduce the average electricity cost down to 0.22 EUR/MWh and also reduce up to 2.22 × 106 t (96%) of the CO2 emissions by 2025 with very high penetration of VRES but at the expense of significant amount of curtailment. This is achieved by increasing the VRES installed capacity to 10,142 MW. As a consequence, up to 7.07 TWh (97%) of thermal generation is displaced with up to 8.84 TWh (75%) of load covered by VRES.

Effects of sizing on battery life and generation cost in PV–wind battery hybrid systems

Battery energy storage system (BESS) is a crucial part of standalone renewable hybrid power systems. Dynamic battery degradation analysis and life prediction are essential for better techno-economic estimation of standalone PV–wind battery hybrid power systems. With this viewpoint, this paper aims to study battery degradation using a physics-based pseudo-two-dimensional (P2D) thermal battery model integrated with renewable PV–wind hybrid power systems and investigates the impact of BESS size variation on its degradation and its effect on the energy generation costs A power management and control strategy is developed to ensure continuous power flow with two regulation modes; (a) maximum power point tracking and (b) controlled power generation. Yearly real-world load data, operating, and ambient conditions are used to study five different percentage mixes of PV and wind power generation scenarios. For example, a mix of 70% PV-30% wind, 350 kWh BESS is needed (base case) based on the demand. The yearly degradation rate for this case is calculated to be 3.80%. The degradation rates vary from 3.80 to 2.33% per year for every 10% increment in the BESS size from the base case. Performing a techno-economic analysis reveals that the least energy generation cost is achieved when increasing the BESS size by 20%. This increases BESS life from 5.3 years to 7.3 years and reduces the generation cost from 35.19 ₹ kWh−1 (0.482 $ kWh−1) to 34.34 ₹ kWh−1 (0.470 $ kWh−1). These results provide essential insights to analyse the impact of BESS sizing on degradation and energy generation cost in a standalone PV–wind battery hybrid power system framework. The oversized BESS provides extended life and reduces the energy generation cost for a standalone PV–wind–battery hybrid power system.

Multi-objective optimisation for building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) roof projects in early design phase

Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is an excellent renewable energy application for building envelopes. In Australia, BIPV roofing is considered to be promising because of recent major concerns about fire risks of façades. However, the integration of PV into building envelope elements is a complicated process which, if not done properly, may lead to failure of the BIPV system. Therefore, feasible BIPV design solutions need to be examined in terms of life-cycle cost and energy performance from the early design phase of a BIPV envelope project. There have been few investigations of the identification of feasible BIPV design options in the early design phase to enable product selection and parametric tests. This study explores a multi-objective optimization method which formulates feasible BIPV envelope design options which have relatively high energy generation and low life cycle costs to informed decision making. The optimisation process has four segments: data inputs, simulator, optimizer and pareto front based optimised BIPV solutions. The proposed multi- objective optimization process is applied in a BIPV roof application using a case study in Australia with roof sheets and skylights. The results demonstrate seven optimum roof sheet BIPV design solutions and fourteen optimum skylight BIPV design solutions to enable design makers to compare and select the most appropriate. The life cycle cost, life cycle energy, CO2 emissions avoided, net present value, payback period, and levelized cost of energy of BIPV solutions vary based on the BIPV modules, tilt angles and placement locations. The proposed optimization method is a helpful guide for BIPV design professionals to identify suitable BIPV design options in the early design phase instead of relying on rule-of-thumb experience.

A techno-economic investigation of grid integrated hybrid renewable energy systems

The present work investigates the techno-economic-environmental feasibility analysis of a grid-connected hybrid system as a microgrid in the western Himalayan region, using local renewable resources such as solar, wind, biomass (pine needles). A total of 5 distinct configurations are examined based on available resources in the presence and absence of a storage unit. The grid-connected biomass gasifier/photovoltaic hybrid system is found to be most cost-effective, with an energy generation cost of $0.099/kWh. The optimal system is estimated to save 27.8 Mt CO2/year (w.r.t diesel-only system). Finally, sensitivity is carried out to ascertain the impact of changes in different input parameters like solar radiation, fuel price, biomass gasifier life, real interest rate, and capacity shortage on system outputs for critical sensitive parameters identification. The optimal system is found to be more sensitive towards variations in solar radiation, real interest rate, biomass gasifier lifetime, and annual capacity shortage mainly. The study findings would help renewable system planers, analysts and policymakers in terms of identifying latest design constraints and formulating appropriate strategies for biomass-based hybrid systems.

A Decentralized Game Theoretic Approach for Virtual Storage System Aggregation in a Residential Community

The current electricity market is better described as an oligopoly than a market of perfect competition from which, in fact, it may be rather far. The increasing penetration of residential distributed energy resources has led to a significant number of prosumers in the electricity market. Microgrid community, a group of single controllable entity prosumers, is a promising component of the smart grid which will potentially yield a free electricity market. In this paper, we present a novel formation for a residential community microgrid that includes a coalition of prosumer households with solar photovoltaic systems. These households are connected through a virtual power bank that consists of households’ storage batteries and that mediates the communications between the households and the main grid. Using an application of mean field game theory, we find Nash Equilibrium strategies under which such sharing could minimize a linear combination of the households’ energy generation cost, energy consumption cost and revenue of sold energy. The resulting approach is tested on a case study of a constructed community micro-grid in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The proposed mean field game approach can help decrease the aggregated cost and the individual energy cost. A comparative analytical study on the benefit of sharing was also performed, demonstrating that each prosumer is expected to have at least a 40 percent reduction on their individual cost if belonging to a microgrid community of 100 prosumers located in Montreal city.

On the issue of creation and application of mobile ETC

Currently, there are processes of transformation of energy systems in the world, as a result of which a new architecture is being created. The main factors driving the transformation of energy systems are a signifi cant reduction in the cost of energy generation and an increase in electricity consumption, including distributed generation, electric transport, electrification of mobile power facilities in the agro-industrial complex, energy storage management system, energy supply and intellectualization of production.