Hybrid-Microgrid Planning, Sizing and Optimization for an Industrial Demand in Pakistan

Abstract

Industrial sector is of great significance for the economic growth of every country. The energy crisis in Pakistan has become the prime stumbling block in the economic development of the country. There are many industrial processes that need uninterrupted supply; even a trivial outage can cost millions of dollars. The main cause of "load shedding" in Pakistan is that it produces a major portion of its energy from fossil fuels, whose price and demand is constantly increasing. Most of the customers at industrial and commercial level use Diesel Generator (DiG) as a reliable alternative source of electrical power when grid supply is unavailable. The use of DiG during loading shedding hours would increase the Cost of Energy (COE) per kWh and also enhance environmental emissions. Pakistan has a wide range of renewable power sources like bioenergy, wind, solar, hydel, geothermal etc. The distinct emphasis on the implementation of an industrial microgrid in Faisalabad, Pakistan has been specified in this paper. The prospective benefits of the microgrid fall into three major kinds: cost reduction, fuel saving, and improved environmental emissions. The optimized objective of this work is to maximize these benefits. Moreover while designing the hybrid microgrid system it encounters many design challenges like sizing of the components, system feasibility, COE, system reliability etc. This study contributes to the ongoing studies about hybrid microgrid system and draws attention to the optimal design and sizing considering several techno-economic factors including Net Present Cost (NPC), COE, supply reliability, capacity shortage constraint, battery state of charge (SOC), dispatch strategy, PV power generation and PV array tracking systems. Different cases are studied; microgrid sizing, techno-economic exploration, sensitivity analysis and environmental effects are addressed using (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables) HOMER. The results show that COE and environmental emissions have been significantly reduced for the proposed system.

Keywords

• environmental emissions
• fossil fuels
• HOMER
• industrial microgrid
• Pakistan energy crisis, renewable resources