Application of Optimization to Sizing Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Management in Microgrids

Abstract

The smart grid is the aggregation of emerging technologies in both hardware and software along with practices to make the existing power grid more reliable and ultimately more beneficial to consumers. The smart grid concept is associated with the production of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES). For the distant isolated regions, microgrids (MG) with RES are offering a suitable solution for remote and isolated region electrification. The improper sizing would lead to huge investment cost which could have been avoided. The objective of this chapter is to review the state-of-the-art studies on the use of optimization techniques to renewable energy design and sizing. The chapter reviews the optimization techniques employed at different components of the microgrid including the energy sources, storage elements, and converters/inverters with their control systems.