Remote Microgrids for Energy Access in Indonesia—Part II: PV Microgrids and a Technology Outlook

Abstract

This paper is the companion paper of Remote Microgrids for Energy Access in Indonesia “Part I: scaling and sustainability challenges and a technology outlook”. This part II investigates the issues of photovoltaic (PV) systems with respect to the planning, design, and operation, and maintenance phases in microgrids in Indonesia. The technology outlooks are also included as PV has an important role in providing electricity in the underdeveloped, isolated, and border areas. The data in this paper are from PV microgrids located in Maluku and North Maluku, which are two provinces where there is barely any grid connection available and thus very dependent on remote microgrids. The data are obtained from interviews with Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and NZMATES, which are an Indonesian utility company and a program for supporting role for the PV systems in Maluku funded by New Zealand respectively. Common issues with respect to reliability and sustainability are identified based on the provided data. Advanced technologies to increase reliability and sustainability are also presented in this paper as a technology outlook. Among these solutions are online monitoring systems, PV and battery lifetime estimation, load forecasting strategies, and PV inverters technology.

Renewable-Energy-Based Microgrid Design and Feasibility Analysis for King Saud University Campus, Riyadh

“…For the current microgrid study, these costs include all the costs, such as PV panels, wind turbines, converters, batteries, penalty costs, and the costs of grid integration. Therefore, Equation ( 4) may be used to compute the NPC [41][42][43].…”

“…Saudi Arabia is a country that produces most of its electric power through oil, which must now be changed for good. With this intention, the Vision 2030 blueprint by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a revolutionary step toward the utilization of renewable energy resources for power generation so that overall GHG emissions may be reduced [42]. A comparison of GHG emissions among the proposed system configurations is presented in Table 7.…”

“…The optimal system configuration, which was selected through a rigorous procedure, was subjected to a sensitivity analysis to validate the system performance with varying different system parameters. The optimal system performance as per the sensitivity analysis will finalize that the selected system configuration is not only economically and environmentally viable but is reliable as well [42,43]. In this research work, four different sensitivity variables, the grid power price, minimum renewable fraction, carbon emission penalty, and battery backup size, were selected as system constraints for analyzing the selected system's reliability.…”

Renewable Energy Contribution Based on Microgrid Using Photovoltaic and Wind Turbine Scenario

“…Vol. 4 Because the nominal AC load energy is fixed in all situations, the change in the value of purchased and sold energy determines the nominal renewable fraction. In this scenario, the grid-connected microgrid model clearly shows the relationship between the nominal renewable fraction and grid failures, which result in fluctuating changes in energy sold and purchased.…”

“…In Indonesia, microgrid systems have not been widely used, but development is planned to produce small-medium size independent power plants and spread by utilizing power plants sourced from renewable energy and conventional power plants. In 2019, there are 75.7 million households in Indonesia, with a total power consumption of 245.5 TWh used across the archipelago [3] [4]. Of course, supporting energy sources must be considered; for example, according to IRENA, the installed capacity for solar energy utilization in 2019 was 198 MW, while the capacity for wind energy utilization was 76 MW [5].…”