Modelling the energy balances community under conditions increasing energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

There is a need to develop effective technical and technological solutions to optimise the use of renewable energy in combined energy supply systems, which will solve the problems of uneven load and stochastic generation, ensuring energy independence of communities and minimising environmental impact. The aim of the work was to create a model of optimal loading of the installations of the technological structure of the combined energy supply of the community when covering the daily schedules of the electric and thermal load of the microenergy system. Its use made it possible to form the structure of annual monthly forecast balances of heat and electricity of an energy-independent community with minimisation of negative impact on the environment for further forecast analysis and determination of directions of innovative improvement of the community energy system in terms of climate change prevention and sustainable development of society. The results of model calculations of monthly annual balances of heat and electricity for the formed variants of the technological structure of the combined energy system of the Smila territorial community showed that an increase in the share of renewable energy capacities in its structure from 55% to 69% with a 30% limitation of electricity consumption (imports) from the external grid leads to a 3.5-fold reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq) from electricity production. The overall reduction in GHG emissions of the community’s combined energy supply system amounted to 42%. The increase in the share of green generation in the technological structure of the community’s combined energy supply caused a surplus of electricity in the local grid, the share of which in the total annual consumption of the community for the option with the largest volume of green generation was 2.5 The research results showed that ensuring the alignment of renewable energy generation with the variable load local grid required further consideration of the possibility using energy storage systems to transfer excess electricity or technologies for converting it into heat energy. This would allow for the replacement of equivalent amounts of heat generation from natural gas boilers, contributing to an increase in the community’s energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions