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Improved sizing of PV-BESS DC microgrids : a mixed-integer optimization

University of British Columbia

Remote off-grid communities rely on diesel for generating electricity. In addition to the greenhouse gas emissions, diesel generators require a constant fuel supply leading to transportation and logistics issues over the lifespan of the project. On the other hand, PV-BESS microgrids offer a suitable alternative to provide clean and sustainable energy to the communities due to their decreasing cost, small size, versatility for interconnection and low maintenance. Conventional methods determine the required PV-BESS installed capacity utilizing simple models to assess the financial aspects of the systems. However, they do not provide information about the implementation, thus requiring an additional stage to select available commercial devices and the correct series-parallel interconnection of the PV, BEES and power converters. Consequently, the overall cost of the system increases, while the performance drifts away from the predicted behaviour. In this work, a novel sizing methodology is proposed, reducing the cost of the system by 23%, the installed PV and BESS by 9% and the necessary power converters by 58%. The proposed approach facilitates a comprehensive study of the scenario, incorporating advanced models in the optimization problem, maintaining the financial goals, and adding new goals to a multi-objective optimal energy management strategy (EMS). The proposed optimal solution provides the number of series-parallel interconnected PV and BESS, and the required number of power converters, which eliminates the need for an additional implementation stage. The developed tool provides a comprehensive understanding of standalone microgrids, closing the gap between the optimal solution and industrial implementation.

Text

2019-12-17

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/72799

Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/