Development of a Power Generation and Economic Model for Micro-Grid Applications

Abstract Over the last few years, many studies have attempted to quantify the impact of renewable energy and energy storage systems on various energy grids. This paper presents an analysis on the impact of various assumptions on the expansion of a micro-grid. The analysis focused on understanding how the size of a PV system, a wind turbine farm, and a storage system (Liion batteries, or thermal energy storage) impacted both the portion of the grid that was decarbonized and the cost of the microgrid. Throughout the analysis, several economic assumptions were varied to understand the impact that the capital costs and operational costs had on the performance and design of the micro-grid. The results show that a microgrid at the SwRI campus could save up to 12% compared to current projections while reducing the emissions by 30% through building 32MW of PV. Above 32MW, the impact of the PV system starts to decline due to additional capacity not providing as much benefit. To further decarbonize the SwRI grid, either a different renewable technology or energy storage would need to be added to the grid and over 50% of the grid could be decarbonized without increasing costs. The results were most sensitive to the PV capital costs, with minor changes in the cost resulting in significantly different storage systems being deployed. Overall, the battery storage technology slightly outperformed the long duration energy storage system due to the battery being able to better maximize the available excess energy from the PV field.