Economic and Environmental Advantages of Renewable-based Microgrids over Conventional Microgrids

Distributed generation is one of the best and most practical ways to achieve power supply reliability. Yet, the best method to maximize this benefit is by utilizing the distributed energy resources within smart microgrids, where these resources, and nearby loads are efficiently controlled via the “Microgrid Controller,” which consists the heart of a microgrid. Distributed energy resources could be any type of generation from a typical fossil-fueled generator to the most recent form of a renewable energy generation system. The objective of this study is to highlight the economic superiority of renewable-energy-based microgrids over the traditional microgrids, utilizing only conventional fossil-fuel-based energy resources. This is in addition to the resulting environmental benefit of avoiding large amounts of CO2emissions. Simulation results for the four case studies prove the economic feasibility of renewable-based microgrids over diesel- generator-based microgrid in all cases. The economic analysis shows that including renewable energy systems within the microgrids reduced the Net present cost (NPC) of the conventional microgrid in this study by up to 44%. The chosen disparate locations for the smart microgrids are Yuma/AZ/USA, Boston/MA/USA, Ma'an/Jordan, and Plymouth/England.