A Combined Strategy to Improve Operational Efficiency of Microgrids with High Integration of Solar and Wind Energy

Abstract

Renewable energies offer many benefits in reducing the harm and consequences caused by conventional resources such as fossil fuels. However, the high penetration of renewable energy sources presents a challenge for the operation and stabilization of system frequencies because of the uncertainties of weather factors. Moreover, the renewable energy operation does not participate in the process of supporting the inertia of whole system. Therefore, the paper proposes a combined strategy including storage system and deloading operation to support system frequencies in microgrids to improve operational efficiency. By creating an additional amount of reserve capacity to mobilize in time in case of an imbalance of power, thereby helping to stabilize the frequency. The proposed strategy allows the power grid operation more flexible in such a way that it can appropriately choose either deloading-control or utilizing energy storage sources to support the grid’s frequency taking into account the operational conditions. The proposed suggestion has been evaluated in Matlab/Simulink software in multiple cases to show its effectiveness.