Economic Power Capacity Design of Distributed Energy Resources for Reliable Community Microgrids

TL;DR

This paper proposes a combined quantitative and qualitative methodology for designing the capacity of distributed energy resources in community microgrids, ensuring reliability amidst uncertainties using optimization and sensitivity analysis.

Contribution

It introduces an innovative approach integrating DTFT and PSO for optimal DER capacity design considering load and renewable uncertainties.

Findings

Optimal DER capacity design improves system reliability.

Sensitivity analysis reveals impact of renewable forecast accuracy.

Method effectively balances cost and reliability in microgrid planning.

Abstract

Community microgrids are developed within existing power systems by integrating local distributed energy resources (DERs). So power distribution systems can be seamlessly partitioned into community microgrids and end-users could be largely supported when an extreme event happens. However, because of DERs low inertia, their power capacity should be well designed to cover unexpected events and guarantee system reliability. This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative combined methodology for DERs selection, and an economic approach to meet the system reliability requirements. Discrete time Fourier transform (DTFT) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are employed to obtain the optimal solution, with consideration of load demand and renewable generation uncertainties. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to show how DERs' capacity design is impacted by counted portion of the forecasted renewable generation.