Sizing hybrid green hydrogen energy generation and storage systems (HGHES) to enable an increase in renewable penetration for stabilising the grid.

A problem that has become apparently growing in the deployment of renewable energy systems is the power grids inability to accept the forecasted growth in renewable energy generation integration. To support forecasted growth in renewable generation integration, it is now recognised that Energy Storage Technologies (EST) must be utilised. Recent advances in Hydrogen Energy Storage Technologies (HEST) have unlocked their potential for use with constrained renewable generation. HEST combines Hydrogen production, storage and end use technologies with renewable generation in either a directly connected configuration, or indirectly via existing power networks. A levelised cost (LC) model has been developed within this thesis to identify the financial competitiveness of the different HEST application scenarios when used with grid constrained renewable energy. Five HEST scenarios have been investigated to demonstrate the most financially competitive configuration and the benefit that the by-product oxygen from renewable electrolysis can have on financial competitiveness. Furthermore, to address the lack in commercial software tools available to size an energy system incorporating HEST with limited data, a deterministic modelling approach has been developed to enable the initial automatic sizing of a hybrid renewable hydrogen energy system (HRHES) for a specified consumer demand. Within this approach, a worst-case scenario from the financial competitiveness analysis has been used to demonstrate that initial sizing of a HRHES can be achieved with only two input data, namely “ the available renewable resource and the load profile. The effect of the electrolyser thermal transients at start-up on the overall quantity of hydrogen produced (and accordingly the energy stored), when operated in conjunction with an intermittent renewable generation source, has also been modelled. Finally, a mass-transfer simulation model has been developed to investigate the suitability of constrained renewable generation in creating hydrogen for a hydrogen refuelling station

Special issue on standalone renewable energy system: Modeling and controlling

1. Introduction Standalone (off-grid) renewable energy systems supply electricity in places where there is no access to a standard electrical grid. These systems may include photovoltaic generators, wind turbines, hydro turbines or any other renewable electrical generator. Usually this kind of system includes electricity storage (commonly, lead-acid batteries, but also other types of storage can be used, such as lithium batteries, other battery technologies, supercapacitors and hydrogen). In some cases, a backup generator (usually powered by fossil fuel, diesel or gasoline) is part of the hybrid system. Low-power standalone systems are usually called off-grid systems and typically power single households by diesel generators or by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems (solar home systems) [1]. Systems of higher power are called micro- or mini-grids, which can supply several households or even a whole village. Mini- or micro-grids, powered by renewable sources, can be classified as smart grids, allowing information exchange between the consumers and the distributed generation [2]. The modelling of the components, the control of the system and the simulation of the performance of the whole system are necessary to evaluate the system technically and economically. The optimization of the sizing and/or the control is also an important task in this kind of systems..

Energy Production Analysis and Optimization of Mini-Grid in Remote Areas: The Case Study of Habaswein, Kenya

Rural electrification in remote areas of developing countries has several challenges which hinder energy access to the population. For instance, the extension of the national grid to provide electricity in these areas is largely not viable. The Kenyan Government has put a target to achieve universal energy access by the year 2020. To realize this objective, the focus of the program is being shifted to establishing off-grid power stations in rural areas. Among rural areas to be electrified is Habaswein, which is a settlement in Kenya’s northeastern region without connection to the national power grid, and where Kenya Power installed a stand-alone hybrid mini-grid. Based on field observations, power generation data analysis, evaluation of the potential energy resources and simulations, this research intends to evaluate the performance of the Habaswein mini-grid and optimize the existing hybrid generation system to enhance its reliability and reduce the operation costs. The result will be a suggestion of how Kenyan rural areas could be sustainably electrified by using renewable energy based off-grid power stations. It will contribute to bridge the current research gap in this area, and it will be a vital tool to researchers, implementers and the policy makers in energy sector

Development of a renewable hybrid power plant with extended utilization of pumped storage unit equipment

The scheme of a renewable hybrid power plant with the extended use of the installed equipment of the pumped storage unit for the conversion of the photovoltaic and wind generators direct current to the alternating one is proposed. The scheme is based on existing components with widely used proven technology. To output the power of solar and wind generators to the grid and for DC to AC conversion, a synchronous generator of the pumped storage unit is used in addition to grid inverters. An induction motor, powered through a variable frequency drive from a common DC bus, is used together with a hydraulic turbine to rotate the generator. In addition, batteries and capacitors banks are connected to the DC bus. The possibility of using various types of electric machines to drive a synchronous generator is analyzed and the preference of an induction motor is shown. The response of an induction motor to rotational speed fluctuations is modeled and its capability to participate in the network frequency regulation is shown. With the example of a typical daily load and generation profile, it is shown that the proposed solution for DC to AC conversion has an efficiency close to that of the grid inverter. The proposed scheme of the hybrid power plant can increase the reliability of renewable energy sources and the stability of the network frequency. This is achieved due to increasing the inertia of the rotating masses in the power system, the power factor control capabilities of the synchronous generator and the proper response of induction motor to rapid fluctuations of the rotation speed. The creation of such hybrid power plants opens the way for a further increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the power system.Запропоновано схему гібридної відновлюваної електричної станції з розширеним використанням встановленого обладнання гідроакумулюючого блока для перетворення постійного струму фотоелектричних та вітрових генераторів в змінний. Схема базується на наявних компонентах з широко використовуваною відпрацьованою технологією. Для видачі потужності та перетворення постійного струму сонячних та вітрових генераторів в змінний окрім мережевих інверторів використовується синхронний генератор гідроакумулюючого блоку. Для обертання генератора крім гідротурбіни також використовується асинхронний двигун, підключений через частотно-регульований привод до загальної шини постійного струму станції. Крім того, до шини постійного струму підключені електрохімічні акумулятори і батареї конденсаторів. Проаналізовано можливість використання різних типів електричних машин для приводу синхронного генератора і показано перевагу асинхронного двигуна. Змодельовано реакцію асинхронного двигуна на коливання швидкості обертання і показано його здатність брати участь в регулюванні частоти мережі. На прикладі типового добового графіка навантаження і генерації показано, що запропоноване рішення по перетворенню постійного струму в змінний має ККД, близький до ККД мережевого інвертора. Запропонована схема гібридної станції дозволяє підвищити надійність роботи відновлюваних джерел енергії і стабільність частоти мережі. Це досягається завдяки збільшенню інерції обертових мас в енергосистемі, можливості управління коефіцієнтом потужності синхронного генератора і властивій асинхронному двигуну реакції на коливання швидкості обертання. Створення таких гібридних станцій відкриває шлях до подальшого збільшення частки відновлюваних джерел в енергосистемі

Distributed multi-agent algorithm for residential energy management in smart grids

Distributed renewable power generators, such as solar cells and wind turbines are difficult to predict, making the demand-supply problem more complex than in the traditional energy production scenario. They also introduce bidirectional energy flows in the low-voltage power grid, possibly causing voltage violations and grid instabilities. In this article we describe a distributed algorithm for residential energy management in smart power grids. This algorithm consists of a market-oriented multi-agent system using virtual energy prices, levels of renewable energy in the real-time production mix, and historical price information, to achieve a shifting of loads to periods with a high production of renewable energy. Evaluations in our smart grid simulator for three scenarios show that the designed algorithm is capable of improving the self consumption of renewable energy in a residential area and reducing the average and peak loads for externally supplied power

An adaptive disturbance rejection control scheme for voltage regulation in DC micro-grids

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Uncertain generation by renewable sources and load variations have resulted in adding energy storage systems in the grid to maintain grid parameters (voltage, frequency) within prescribed limits. The disturbances being non-deterministic in nature, the voltage regulation control by the storage systems relies mostly on dual loop architecture with an outer voltage and inner current loop. Improvement in controller dynamics can be achieved through feed forward of disturbance profile but at expense of additional sensors and communication in the grid. This work explores the application of an adaptive disturbance rejection control scheme for disturbance estimation (without using additional sensors) employing an extended state and proportional integral observer (PI+ESO). The proposed observer aim to achieve robust disturbance estimation under grid parameter uncertainty. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme over the conventional one will be put forward through H8 and H2 norm analysis of the system. The design and simulation results of the proposed scheme will be presented in this work.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A simulator for the control network of smart grid architectures

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A simulation study of the use of electric vehicles as storage on the New Zealand electricity grid

This paper describes a simulation to establish the extent to which reliance on non-dispatchable energy sources, most typically wind generation, could in the future be extended beyond received norms, by utilizing the distributed battery capacity of an electric vehicle fleet. The notion of exploiting the distributed battery capacity of a nation’s electric vehicle fleet as grid storage is not new. However, this simulation study specifically examines the potential impact of this idea in the New Zealand context. The simulation makes use of real and projected data in relation to vehicle usage, full potential non-dispatchable generation capacity and availability, taking into account weather variation, and typical daily and seasonal patterns of usage. It differs from previous studies in that it is based on individual vehicles, rather than a bulk battery model. At this stage the analysis is aggregated, and does not take into account local or regional flows. A more detailed analysis of these localized effects will follow in subsequent stages of the simulation

A new method to energy saving in a micro grid

Optimization of energy production systems is a relevant issue that must be considered in order to follow the fossil fuels consumption reduction policies and CO2 emission regulation. Increasing electricity production from renewable resources (e.g., photovoltaic systems and wind farms) is desirable but its unpredictability is a cause of problems for the main grid stability. A system with multiple energy sources represents an efficient solution, by realizing an interface among renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and conventional power generators. Direct consequences of multi-energy systems are a wider energy flexibility and benefits for the electric grid, the purpose of this paper is to propose the best technology combination for electricity generation from a mix of renewable energy resources to satisfy the electrical needs. The paper identifies the optimal off-grid option and compares this with conventional grid extension, through the use of HOMER software. The solution obtained shows that a hybrid combination of renewable energy generators at an off-grid location can be a cost-effective alternative to grid extension and it is sustainable, techno-economically viable, and environmentally sound. The results show how this innovative energetic approach can provide a cost reduction in power supply and energy fees of 40% and 25%, respectively, and CO2 emission decrease attained around 18%. Furthermore, the multi-energy system taken as the case study has been optimized through the utilization of three different type of energy storage (Pb-Ac batteries, flywheels, and micro—Compressed Air Energy Storage (C.A.E.S.)