Photovoltaic and Storage Tradeoff Analysis in a Coastal (PV-WEC) Microgrid via Sandia’s Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT)

This paper presents a microgrid design and analysis of a coastal community in Puerto Rico with renewable generation consisting of a photovoltaic (PV) system and a Wave Energy Converter (WEC). A design methodology based on Sandia’s Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) is proposed, which analyzes and compares optimal design configurations for a coastal microgrid using PV and WEC generation. Simulations were performed using MDT’s Performance and Reliability Model (PRM) under normal and extreme weather conditions. A tradeoff analysis is carried out between the cost of the microgrid’s distributed energy resources (DER) and the system’s ability to serve critical and non-priority loads under extreme events. The addition of the WEC is proposed to assess if this new technology could reduce costs and increase system performance for a coastal microgrid. Results show that the WEC could serve as a promising alternative for such applications.