2012 3rd IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe (ISGT Europe), Berlin

Optimal Storage Capacity within an

Autonomous Micro Grid with a high Penetration
of Renewable Energy Sources
P. Lombardi, T. Sokolnikova, K.V. Suslov Member IEEE, Z. Stczynski Senior Member, IEEE,
Abstract--Some Renewable Energy Sources (RES), such as
wind and solar, produce power intermittently according to the
weather conditions rather than to the power demanded. Energy
Storage Systems (ESS) may be used to mitigate the intermittent
generation from RES and to increase the quality of power supply.
This study aims to fnd the relationship between the
generation from RES and the needed amount of ESS. An
autonomous microgrid has been analyzed in which a part of
electricity demanded during one year is generated by Wind
Turbines and Photovoltaic plants (PV), while the remaining part
is produced by fuel based generators. An intelligent Energy
Management System (EMS) optimally schedules the fuel based
generators according to the load demanded, the weather
conditions and to the electricity generation costs. The optimal
storage needed to balance the system for different scenarios were
investigated and results of this investigation are shown and
discussed in this paper.
1Ndc Terms--Autonomous microgrid, energy storage systems,
mixed integer linear programming, renewable energy sources,
smart grid.
I. INTRODUCTION
R
ENEWABLE Energy Sources (RES) are candidates to be
the backbone of the fture power systems. However some
RES, such as wind and solar, generate power not when it is
demanded but in an intermittent and variable way. This makes
it difcult to integrate the power generated fom these RES
into the electric network. In order to solve this problem
smarter power structures (Smart Grids) are going to be built
[1]. Smart Grids are mainly based on Information and
Communication Technologies (lCT) and on Energy Storage
Systems (ESS). Among the Smart Grids, different structures
like micro grids or Virtual Power Plants (VPP) are going to be
developed. One of the main characteristics of these structures
is the possibility to operate autonomously [3], [10]. In an
autonomous power system with a high penetration of RES the
problem coming fom the intermittent generation has to be
P. Lombardi is with the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and
Automation IFF, 39106 Magdeburg Germay (e-mail:
pio.lombardi@if.fraunhofer.de).
T. Sokolnikova and K.V. Suslov are with the Depatment of Power Supply
and Electrical Engineering of Irkutsk State Technical University (ISTU),
664074 Irkutsk Russia (e-mail: souslov@istu.edu ).
Z. Styczysnki is with Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 39 \06
Magdeburg Germay (e-mail: sty@ieee.org).
locally solved. Generally Demand Side Management programs
(DSM) as well as ESS are the most commonly used solutions.
However the contribution of DSM is marginal and it has a low
infuence on the optimal energy storage capacity [4].
This study aims to search for the relation between the
needed storage capacity and the amount of energy generated
by wind and solar within an autonomous microgrid. The
microgrid is composed by four fel based generators, a small
wind farm and a PV plant. An intelligent Energy Management
System (EMS) optimally controls the fuel based generators
and the ESS with the aim to minimize the fel costs. Eleven
main scenarios were analyzed. In the frst and last scenario the
amount of electricity generated by wind and PV is zero and
100%, respectively. Moreover, sensitivity analyses were
carried out to fmd the infuence between the type of RES
based technology that was used and the energy storage
capacity.
II. AUTONOMOUS MICRO GRID: MODELING AND PROBLEM
FORMULATION
. Micro grid description and modeling of the installed power
Microgrids are defned as a group of generators, energy
storage systems and loads which, in part, can be also
controlled [5]. The generators may use RES such as wind,
solar and biogas, or clean fossil sources such as natural gas.
Generally the generators that burn gases produce both
electricity as well as thermal energy. The combination of both
types of generation has the advantage to increase the overall
effciency by recovering of the energy of the exhausted gases.
Energy storage systems are mainly used for power quality and
energy storage applications. Flywheels and supercapacitors are
generally used for power quality applications. Batteries are
mostly devoted for energy management application even if
some high temperature battery technologies, such as NaS, can
be used both for energy management as well as for power
quality purposes [6]. With regard to the loads, some of them,
like heating, air conditioning or wash machines, can offer to
possibility to be controlled using load management programs
which may decide to shif the load or to curtail them during
particular conditions [7] . In order to control all the generators,
energy storage systems and load information need to be
evaluated and sent to a central Energy Management System.
For micro grids as well as for the entire smart grid concept
ICT are the backbone on which the system depends.
978-1-4673-2597-4/12/$31.00 20 12 IEEE
I
2
In this study an autonomous micro grid was analyzed. The
TABLE II:
micro grid is composed of four conventional generators, a INSTALLED POWER IN EACH SCENARIO
wind farm and a PV plant (Fig. 1 ). An EMS optimally controls
the production of the four conventional generators according
to their generation costs, to the weather conditions and to the
State of Charge (SOC) of the storage system. Besides the
control of the generators the EMS also controls the loads. If
the generators are not able to cover all of the demand, the
EMS curtails a part of the load.
Normalized curves were used to model both the generation
profles of the wind farm and PV plant as well as to model the
load profle. These curves were measured in a wind farm, a
PV plant and in a district all situated in Germany. The values
of the fll load hours for the used profles are shown in Table
I.
5ccuar0
|
1(0%)
II (10%)
g III (20%)
IV (30%)
I V (40%)
VI (50%)
I VII (60%)
VIIl(70%)
g IX (80%)
X (90%)
gXI (100%)
Gen.1
[MW]
0.25
0.225
0.2
0.175
0.15
0.125
0.1
0.D75
0.05
0.025
0
Gen.2 Gen.3
[MW] [MW]
0.25 0.25
0.225 0.225
0.2 0.2
0.175 0.175
0.15 0.15
0.125 0.125
0.1 0.1
0.075 0.075
0.05 0.05
0.025 0.025
0 0
Gen.4 Wind V
[MW] [MW] [MW]
0.25 0 0
|
0.225 0.18 0.2
0.2 0.23 0.4
|
0.175 0.35 0.61
0.15 0.47 0.81
I
0.125 0.59 1.02
0.1 0.7 1.22

0.075 0.82 1.43

0.05 0.94 1.63
|
0.025 1.06 1.84
0 l.l8 2.04
|
TABLE I :
The installed power of the energy storage system was
FULL LOAD HOURS FOR THE USED PROFILES calculated as the difference between the sum of the installed
Wind farm PV plant Load
[hours] [hours] [hours]
uIII0ad h0ur 1580 912 3723
Fig.l Scheme of the analyzed micro grid
The micro grid has a maximal and a minimal power
demand of 1 MW and 0.136 MW, respectively, while the
yearly electricity demanded is 3723 MWh. Eleven scenarios
were simulated in order to check the relationship between the
generated electricity fom RES and the needed storage
capacity. In the frst scenario the energy demanded in one
year is totally generated by the four conventional generators,
while in the last scenario it is completely generated by the
wind farm and the PV plant. In the frst scenario no ESS was
considered. In the other nine scenarios a part of the
demanded energy is produced using RES while the rest is
generated using the four conventional generators. The energy
produced by RES is equally divided between the wind farm
and the PV plant. Table II describes the installed power for
each technology in each scenario.
I
RES power and the minimal demanded power (1). For the
considered generation profle of wind and PV the installed
power coincides also with the maximum generated power. The
application of the storage is mainly dedicated to the energy
management rather than to the grid support. In fact, it has to
compensate the intermittent generation of the RES based
plants. No specifc ESS were considered, however an overall
effciency of 81% (Tch=Tdisch=0.9) was assumed, which is
typical of some battery technologies.
....,.
=
,.,..
+
.,,) '
t
...
`
(1)
!. Optimal scheduling of generators
As mentioned above, the EMS optimally controls the
conventional generators for minimizing the fel costs. A
quadratic cost function was used which relates the fuel cost to
the generated power (2). Table III shows the data of the
generators.
c
t

` =
a ' p2 + b .

+ c (2)
TABLE Ill:
DATA OF GENERA TORS
lcucrat0r Pma Pmin Fuel cost coefcients Start
[MW] [MW] up
costs
[]
a b c
[/MW2h] [/MWh] [/h]
1
*
0 0.01 30 109 28
I
2
*
0 0.023 42 97 28
3
*
0 0.026 32 109 28
I
4
*
0 0.024 97 100 28
I
*
See Table II
Since the mixed integer linear programming algorithm was
chosen to optimally schedule the generators, the cost fnctions
were linearized. Therefore, instead of a quadratic fnction,
piecewise linear functions were calculated. The objective
fnction as well as the constrains of the optimization problem
I
I
I
I
3
are shown in (3) and (4), respectively.
4
(! = :L CJUi' Pi)
i
=l
RES the needed storage capacity increases too (Fig.2). Fig.2
also shows that if the RES share is lower than 10%, the total
(3)
annual costs linearly increase with increasing energy storage
capacity.
{t Pitt) LDad(t) - P
w
in,(t) - p
p.
(t)
P
,h,'",
(4)
Ui
.
pi
ml
n
:
Pi
: Ui
.
Pi
max
Where

C, are the generation costs,

Ui is a binary variable [0 or 1], (1 if the generator
is set up)

P, is the produced power fom the generator i,

t is the time step (one hour),

Load is the demanded load for the hour t,

Pl'ind is the power generated during the hour t by
the wind farm,

Ppl' is the power generated during the hour t by the
PV,

Pcldiscl is the power charged and discharged
to/fom the ESS during the hour t. Such a power is
positive when the ESS is charged and negative
when it is discharged.
L Optimal storage capacit
One of the main aims of this study is to fnd the optimal
storage capacity for the analyzed micro grid. In order to fmd it
a second optimization problem was set. The problem consists
in minimizing the total annual cost of the micro grid. The
annual costs are defned as the swn of the fel costs (Costt
),
the discounted investment costs of the ESS (CostInI'Ball)' the
costs for switching off the load if all the generators are not
able to cover it (CoStsl'lIcho) and the costs for not producing
RES power if the EES is full (CostslrptlsRES) (5).
(!_ = :(Cost
!
Uel + CostinvEEs
+ Cost
sw
i
tChO!!
+ CostsurPlusRES
(5)
The investment costs for the ESS were assumed to be 2500
/kWh. A life time of 10 years and a discount factor of 10%
were considered. The costs due to the switch off of the loads
were estimated using the Value of Lost Load (VOLL). This
value depends on the kind of load that should be switched off.
For industrial and commercial loads it ranges between 10000
and 40000 per MWh [9],[2]. In this study 10000 per MWh
was assumed as VOLL. Finally, the authors assumed that the
costs for not producing fom RES may be estimated as 200
per MWh.
III. RESULTS
Eleven scenarios considered, as shown in Table II above. In
these scenarios the energy generated by the RES is equally
divided between the wind fann and the PV plant. The total
annual costs in each scenario were evaluated. The analysis
shows that by increasing the amount of energy generated by
X

q ...................... ........................

........... .
.
.
.
.

y ---------

---------

----------

-- ------------------- ------------------------l---------------------

. .

g g . .. ................ j ........................
;
........... .
c : :
c
. .
r
c
7
f
q ---------.------------
0
y .......... ........

0
SlOIa_e6aa6ly0j
Fig.2 Total annual costs related to the RES share and to the storage capacit
In this study, investing in ESS became proftable only if
more than 10% of the annual electricity is produced by RES.
The reason mainly depends on the assumed VOLL. If this
value is increased, the proftability to have a storage system,
even when the share of RES is lower than 10%, increases too.
If the micro grid is flly fed through RES, a storage system
with an installed power of 3 MW and a capacity of 7.6 hours
results as the optimal choice (Fig.3).
u
r
o " . . . .
T

;

__

_ _

__ _ __ ___
Gene|aL.onlon
Fig.3 Optimal storage capacity for diferent RES generation
The sensitivity analysis showed how the technology used to
generate electricity infuences the storage capacity. If the
micro grid was flly fed using wind turbines, a storage
capacity of 57 M is required. However, if the micro grid
was fed only through PV plants, the storage capacity
decreased to nearly 17 MWh, as shown in FigA.
SenSilv]ana]SS
* w.nd shae% PV shaIe % .n HLS
"w.nd shae% PV shae% .n HLS
. .
.
_._
.
_.- w.nd shae % PV shae% .n HLS
.

.._

........

_.

> . . . .
q

........ ..... ... ......,.......,...- ..... ................... / .... .

u : '
/
: /"
r : , I ;
"
j

........

.., .......................... ..

........,....... .....
r
' I I J I
i :: ] _
_
.
.
-._." . .
0 Z
Fig.4 Sensitivity analysis
b
GeneIalOnlIOh KLS|%j
IV. CONCLUSIONS
B
The infuence between the energy generated using C
based technologies and the optimal storage capacity was
analyzed within an autonomous micro grid structure. The
analysis shows that the optimal storage capacity mainly
depends on three factors:

Amount of energy generated by C,

Type of C technology ,

Value of Lost Load.
A low VOLL justifes the use of energy storage systems
only if the share of C is higher than 30%, while due to the
generation profle of the PV plant such technology requires a
higher storage capacity.
In further research the autonomous system with a grid
connection will be investigated for minimizing the cost
fnction.
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors grateflly acknowledge the fmancial support of
the Russian Federation in the scope of the Grant 220 and the
contributions of Miss Xiubei Ge for her work on the original
version of this document.
VI. REFERENCES
Periodicals:
[I] S. Mossoud Amin, 'Toward a smart grid: power delivery for the 21s
century". Power and Energy Magazine. IEEE., 2005
[2] K. K. Kariuki, R. N. Allan, "Applications of Customers Outage Costs in
System Planning, Desig and Operation" IEEE Proceeding -
Generation, Transmission and Distribution 143,305-312,1996
Papers from Conference Proceedings (Published):
[3] P. Lombardi, P. Vasquez, Z. Styczynski, "Optimised autonomous power
system" in Proc. .JJv Cigre iEEE PES Joint Symposium Calgary, .v
July .JJv.
[4] P. Lombardi, M. Stltzer, Z. Styczynski, A. Orths, "Multi-criteria
optimization of an energy storage system within a Virtual Power Plant
architecture" in Proc. .J11 iEEE POler Engineering Societ General
Meeting Conj,24-29 July 2011 Detroit.
[5] C. Maray, O.c. Bailey. "The CERTS Microgrids ad the future of
microgrids", Berkeley, California 2004.
4
Technical Reports:
[6] EPRI-DOE,"Handbook of energy storage for Transmission and
Distribution applications", 2003 .
[7] N. D. Hatziargyriou, A. Dimeas, A. G. Tsikalakis, l Oyarzabal, lA.
Pecas Lopes, G. Kariniotakis, "Management of microgrids in market
environment", 2009, Available:
http://www.microgrids.eu/micro2000/presentations/3 9.pdf
[8] Styczynski Z., Lombardi P at allii . "Electric Energy Storage Systems".
Electra 255, April 2011", CTGRE Paris ISBN: 978- 2- 85873 - 147-3
[9] CRA International "Assessment of the Value of the Customer Reliability
(VRC)", August 2002.
Dissertations:
[10] P. Lombardi, "Multi criteria optImIzation of an autonomous virtual
power plant". Ph.D. dissertation, Res electricae Magdeburgenses, Bd.
38, ISBN 9783940961556 394096155
VII. BIOGRAPHIES
0 0mbard studied mechaical engineering at the
Politecnico di Bari, Italy. He graduated in 2006 at the
same university with the degree M.Sc. He joined the
Chair of Electric Power Networks ad Renewable Energy
Sources at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg,
Germay as a research engineer in 2006. At the same
university he received his PhD. In 20 11 he joined the
Process and Plant Engineering of Fraunhofer Institute for
Factory Operation and Automation IFF. His primary feld
of interest includes modeling, simulation and optimization of Smart Grids. He
is a member of the Baikal project research group.
storages.
1atyaua V. 50k0Iuk0va graduated in 1985 with M.Sc.
from the Irkutsk State Technical University (ISTU) in
Hydrogeology. Between 1985 and 2005 she was a leading
planing engineer in the Planning Institute Irkutsk. In
2008, she completed her master's degree in Smart Grid
technology at the ISTU and is now working in the scope of
the Bajkal Projekt on her Ph.D. Her research interests are
related to the planning and optimization of autonomous
Smat Grids, taking into account the role of energy
K0uxtautu V. 5uxI0v is an Associate professor at the
electric power supply department of Irkutsk State
Technical University. He graduated from the Irkutsk State
Technical University with the specialty "electric drive
and industrial automations". He has a candidate of
science degree in technics. His research interests are
related to computer engineering and automation,
information-measuring equipment in automated
accounting systems of power consumption. He is a
project research group.
Zbgucw A. 5tyczyuxk (SM '01) received his PhD in
EE at the Technical University of Wroclaw. He worked at
the Technical University of Stuttgart, Germany and 1999
he became Chair of Electric Power Networks and
Renewable Energy Sources of the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering and Information Technology at the Otto-von
Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germay. Since 2006
he has also been the president of the Centre of the
Renewable Energy Saxonia- Anhalt, Germany. His
special feld of interest includes modelling and simulation of the electric
power networks systems, renewable, and optimization problems. He is the
author of more than 1o0 scientifc papers, a senior member of IEEE PES, a
member of CIGRE SC C6, VDE ETG and IBN and a fellow of the Conrad
Adenauer Foundation. In 2011 he won the Super Grant of the Russian
Federation together with the Irkutsk State Technical University (Project
Baikal) and is leading a research group at ISTU in the scope of Smart Grid.