Case Studies on Microgrid Design Using Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

With the increasing urbanization and economic development in the whole world, consumption of energy from fossil fuels has increased, leading to various environmental problems like pollution, global warming and so on. The only way to mitigate these problems is to switch to clean and eco-friendly forms of energy, also called renewable sources of energy. Among the various types of renewable energy, solar and wind are the most predominant. Designs in the latest PV technology now include microgrids to make it more cost effective. By the 20th century, electricity production had been centralized, which increased powerplant efficiencies and made a remarkable change in the economy. But now it is a time of decentralization, which could tackle various energy issues and the demand of the 21st century by creating an optimized way to access reliable, green and resilient energy. Microgrids are the major sources of electricity in places where proper rails, roadways and means of communication are not up to the mark. Considering building applications, microgrid designs are mostly focused on the load pattern of the building and make the best mix of that so that delivery of energy can be optimized. In this article, modeling work combining loads would allow for a measure of control over microgrid costs. This gives the opportunity for penetration of renewable energy into microgrids. In this chapter, two cases are taken into consideration; the first case is for a simple PV connected with a converter and inverter for AC load, and the second case is a hybrid microgrid system using HOMER software considering both solar and wind.