Use of Micro-Cogeneration in Microgrids to Support Renewables

Abstract

The use of renewable energy sources has experienced great development so as to meet energy demand. With the intention of increasing the utilization of the renewable energy sources near the demand side and compensate the fluctuation of the output power, the use of micro-cogeneration systems with solar (PV) and wind energy overcomes both technical and economic barriers. Micro-cogeneration-based hybrid PV/wind energy system can get stable power output. This new energy model also improves the power quality and significantly reduces the impact of power instability on the power network. In this study, the grid-connected hybrid PV/wind energy-based micro-cogeneration system is modeled and analyzed in detail. In order to test the performance analysis of the system, seven different scenarios are analyzed during the case studies. The analysis results show that the new energy model presents effective solutions to electrical power balance because of its properties such as safety, incombustible structure, and being eco-friendly. It is aimed at providing a broad perspective on the status of optimum design and analysis for the micro-cogeneration-based hybrid PV/wind energy system to the researchers and the application engineers dealing with these issues.