Design of power plant capacity in DC hybrid system and microgrid

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the simulation method of power plants and storage system capacity design.

Design/methodology/approach

Owing to solar irradiation, wind speed and water flow are highly and randomly changeable, time variation of the signals needs to be taken into consideration as well as some features of the power plants and storage system. A Matlab/Simulink model of the given system – DC microgrid has been developed. The model allows simulation of a few years static simulations of the power balance. Hence, it can be used to size the plants.

Findings

An effective method of the power system design has been developed. It allows sizing the plants taking into consideration resources and load profiles, year changes in profiles and future development of the system. The storage system can be optimized to avoid high power unbalance and power cost increasing.

Research limitations/implications

The model describes only static power behaviour of the modelled power system. It does not allow simulating local voltage changes and dynamic properties of the plants and storage.

Practical implications

This technique helps to size the plants and, first of all, storage system taking into consideration several technical and economical issues.

Originality/value

The method gives opportunity to design a storage system's capacity and power and optimize them. The authors have not found similar methods in the literature.

Citation

Biczel, P. and Koniak, M. (2011), "Design of power plant capacity in DC hybrid system and microgrid", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 336-350. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321641111091593