Rangel, N. orcid.org/0000-0001-5326-5860, Li, H. orcid.org/0000-0002-2670-874X and Aristidou, P. orcid.org/0000-0003-4429-0225 (2023) An optimisation tool for minimising fuel consumption, costs and emissions from Diesel-PV-Battery hybrid microgrids. Applied Energy, 335. 120748. ISSN 0306-2619
Abstract
Diesel generators (diesel gensets) are widely used within microgrid (MG) and off-grid systems for rural electrification, particularly in developing countries. The sizing and selection techniques during the MG planning stage are a key for maximising cost-effectiveness and minimising environmental impacts. This becomes more important for hybrid mini-grid systems when photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation and other renewable energies are included in the system as special attention is needed to limit the genset's output power, to keep it within the recommended operating range. This paper presents a cost optimisation model, centred on the generatoŕs performance, within diesel/PV/battery MGs, for minimising the MG's operating costs and environmental impact. The model considers fuel consumption equations adapted for castor oil-diesel (COD) blends and two major pollutant emissions (NOx and PM2.5), which are not considered in other optimisation models. The optimisation was implemented for high, medium, and low electricity demand scenarios, with eight possible system configurations, for the Lindi Region of Tanzania as it belongs to one of the five countries with the lowest electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). An economic assessment was done to compare the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of the system configurations. The impact of the fuel price and pollutant emission costs on the fuel selection was investigated using sensitivity analysis. The results confirmed that for specific electricity demand each scenario requires a unique set of diesel generators and the selection is affected by the PV share and the battery energy storage (BES) units included. The best LCOE for the high, medium, and low electricity demand scenarios were 0.43£/kWh, 0.42£/kWh, and 0.45£/kWh, respectively. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the pollutant emission costs have a significant impact on LCOE for the different fuel choices whereas the variation of fuel prices has a minimal effect unless the diesel price increased by 100%.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Hybrid microgrids; Cost optimization; Rural electrification; Diesel generator; Biofuel blends; Pollutant emission costs |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Communication & Power Networks (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 15 Nov 2023 14:40 |
Last Modified: | 15 Nov 2023 14:40 |
Published Version: | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120748 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:205328 |