Energy Storage Impact on CO₂ Emissions Reduction in an Islanded Microgrid

The increasing deployment of distributed generation (DG) presents considerable challenges for system operators. The impact is even more pronounced in the case of islanded grids, such as those of small islands. Their electrical networks are usually supplied by a central station with diesel generators and many distributed sources from renewable energies. In these networks, storage systems are installed to help network stability. An optimization algorithm is presented in this paper to use these storage systems to reduce fuel consumption of diesel generators and the consequent CO2 emissions. More in detail, to control the energy systems, an approach is proposed to manage the different sources of a microgrid to obtain the minimum solution in terms of CO2 emissions. The proposed method utilizes an optimization algorithm within a day-based scheduling strategy. The decision strategy is based on a multi-stage process to both handle the network constraints of the distribution system and the operating specifications of both sources and storage systems.