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Practical Framework for Optimal Planning of Microgrids for Production Processes

Abstract:

The communities face some energy problems, but the reliability and power quality are still challenging. In addition, hundreds of communities lack access to energy entirely, affecting production activities and community development. This paper proposes a methodology for the optimal planning microgrids considering distributed energy resources (DERs) such as photovoltaic systems (PV), wind turbine (WT), micro-hydro (MH) systems, battery energy storage systems (BESS), gas generator sets (GGS) and Diesel generators sets (DGS). In addition, we consider the flexible loads of production processes and non-controllable demands of production processes. The proposed methodology was validated in the rural area “Los Laureles" in the province of Sucumbios in Ecuador, considering the Pitajaya production process. The results show that our methodology can obtain a microgrid planned with an optimal mix of DERs and reduce the powering-up time of the water pumps (flexible loads) associated with the washing of Pitajaya due to maximizes the use of renewable energy resources available. Our methodological framework might be used in any communities to maximize the technical-economic benefits and minimize operating and investment costs.