Effects of size and site factors on the availability of a standalone microgrid

Abstract

In this paper, effects of storage and diesel generator on the availability hybrid renewable energy microgrid have been investigated. Markov technique has been used for the analysis of the output powers of the wind energy conversion system (WECS) and solar energy conversion system (SECS).The proposed method has been tested by increasing the rated power of the WECS and SECS by 25 %, 50%, 75% and 100%. The results have shown a decreased in the number of times a diesel generator starts by 2 %, 7%, 9% and 9 % for WECS. Similarly, SECS decreased same by 4 %, 8 %, 11%, and 13 %. Also, the study of wind generator parameter at different cut-in-speeds levels, including 2 m/s, 2.5m/s, 3.5m/s and 4 m/s reduced the number of times a diesel generator start by 122, 147, 116 and 134. In addition, the effects of weather on the availability of system have been investigated using Boolean Logic Driven Markov process. In the same way, neglecting weather factor overestimate the system availability by 3.55%. Also, increasing the rated power of the WECS is the best way of maximizing the benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of the system.

Keywords: Microgrid, renewable energy, wind storage diesel generator, availability weather, PV