Maximizing the Economic Benefits of a Grid-Tied Microgrid Using Solar-Wind Complementarity

The increasing use of intermittent, renewable energy sources (RESs) for electricity generation in microgrids (MGs) requires efficient strategies for reliable and economic operation. Complementarity between RESs provides good prospects for integrating several local energy sources and reducing the costs of MG setup and operations. This paper presents a framework for maximizing the economic benefits of a grid-tied MG by exploiting the spatial and temporal complementarity between solar and wind energies (solar-wind complementarity). The proposed framework considers the cost of energy production from different RESs and the cost of bi-directional energy exchange with the main grid. For a given RES mix, a minimum system power loss (SPL) threshold can also be determined. However, at this SPL threshold, MG energy exchange cost is not always minimized. The framework determines the optimized SPL value (above the threshold) at which MG energy exchange cost gets minimized. Through this framework, MG operator can decide appropriate RES mix and can achieve various tradeoffs according to the energy production cost, solar-wind complementarity of the site and its required economic objectives.