Micro Nuclear Reactors: Potential Replacements for Diesel Gensets within Micro Energy Grids

Abstract

Resilient operation of medium/large scale off-grid energy systems, which is a key challenge for energy crisis solutions, requires continuous and sustainable energy resources. Conventionally, micro energy grids (MEGs) are adopted to supply electricity and thermal energy simultaneously. Fossil-fired gensets, such as diesel generators, are indispensable components for off-grid MEGs due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources (RESs). However, fossil-fired gensets emit a significant amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Therefore, this study investigates an alternative source as an economical and environmental replacement for diesel gensets that can reduce GHG emissions and ensure system reliability. A MEG is developed in this paper to support a considerably large-scale electric and thermal demand at Ontario Tech University (UOIT). Different sizes of diesel gensets and RESs, such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass, are combined in the MEG for off-grid applications. To evaluate diesel gensets’ competency, the diesel genset is substituted by an emission-free generation source named microreactor (MR). The fossil-fired MEG and MR-based MEG are optimized by an intelligent optimization technique, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO). The objective of the PSO is to minimize the net present cost (NPC). The simulation results show that MR-based MEG could be an excellent replacement for a diesel genset in terms of NPC and selected key performance indicators (KPIs). A comprehensive sensitivity analysis is also carried out to validate the simulation results.