A Comparative Study between Traditional Backup Generator Systems and Renewable Energy Based Microgrids for Power Resilience Enhancement of a Local Clinic

Abstract

Extreme weather events lead to electrical network failures, damages, and long-lasting blackouts. Therefore, enhancement of the resiliency of electrical systems during emergency situations is essential. By using the concept of standby redundancy, this paper proposes two different energy systems for increasing load resiliency during a random blackout. The main contribution of this paper is the techno-economic and environmental comparison of two different resilient energy systems. The first energy system utilizes a typical traditional generator (TG) as a standby component for providing electricity during the blackouts and the second energy system is a grid-connected microgrid consisting of photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage (BES) as a standby component. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to investigate the survivability of both energy systems during the blackouts. The objective function minimizes total net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE) by considering the defined constraints of the system for increasing the resiliency. Simulations are performed by HOMER, and results show that for having almost the same resilience enhancement in both systems, the second system, which is a grid-connected microgrid, indicates lower NPC and COE compared to the first system. More comparison details are shown in this paper to highlight the effectiveness and weakness of each resilient energy system.