Design and Planning Support Tool for Interconnected Micro Energy Grids

Abstract

The need for more flexible energy systems, changing regulatory and economic scenarios, energy savings and environmental impact are providing impetus to the development of micro energy grids, which are predicted to play an increasing role in future power systems. The purpose of this study is to design an efficient integrated simulation tool to estimate life cycle costs of micro energy grid (MEG) for practical implementation. The proposed tool comprises of engineering design modeling of power, thermal and fuel systems within a selected region or community to maximize the use of local resources and minimize the cost of the implementation of micro energy grid. The criteria of choosing the optimal MEG configuration is based on the life cycle costing of available local resources components and estimation of MEG overall cost. The proposal also includes the development of intelligent algorithms for the optimization of life cycle costing of MEG with the selection of best design and configuration alternatives of micro energy grids with power/thermal/fuel loads will be introduced.