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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Smart Grids
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1399114

AC/DC optimal power flow and techno-economic assessment for hybrid microgrids: TIGON CEDER demonstrator

Provisionally accepted
Alejandro Martín-Crespo Alejandro Martín-Crespo 1*Alejandro Hernández-Serrano Alejandro Hernández-Serrano 1Óscar Izquierdo-Monge Óscar Izquierdo-Monge 2Paula Peña-Carro Paula Peña-Carro 2Ángel Hernández-Jiménez Ángel Hernández-Jiménez 2Fernando Frechoso-Escudero Fernando Frechoso-Escudero 3Enrique Baeyens Enrique Baeyens 4
  • 1 Centro Tecnológico CARTIF, Boecillo, Spain
  • 2 Centro de Desarrollo de Energías Renovables, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Soria, Spain
  • 3 Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Industrial Engineering, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
  • 4 Institute of Advanced Production Technologies, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In the recent years, the interest in electric direct current (DC) technologies (such as converters, batteries, electric vehicles, etc.) is increasing due to its potential on energy efficiency and sustainability. However, the vast majority of electric systems and networks are based on alternating current (AC), as they also have certain advantages regarding cost-effective transport and robustness. In this paper, an AC/DC optimal power flow method for hybrid microgrids and several key performance indicators (KPIs) for its techno-economic assessment are presented. The combination of both calculations allows users to clearly determine the viability of their hybrid microgrids. AC/DC networks have been modelled considering their most common elements. For the power flow method, a polynomial optimisation is formulated considering four different objective functions: the minimisation of energy losses, voltage deviation and operational costs, and also the maximisation of the microgrid generation. The power flow method and the techno-economic analysis have been implemented in Python and validated in the Centro de Desarrollo de Energías Renovables (CEDER) demonstrator for TIGON. The results show that the calculated power flow variables and the ones measured at CEDER are practically the same. In addition, the KPIs have been obtained and compared for four operating scenarios: baseline, no battery, battery flexibility and virtual battery (VB) flexibility. The last one result in the most profitable option.

    Keywords: AC/DC optimal power flow, hybrid microgrids, KPIs, Techno-economic assessment, Polynomial optimisation, python

    Received: 11 Mar 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Martín-Crespo, Hernández-Serrano, Izquierdo-Monge, Peña-Carro, Hernández-Jiménez, Frechoso-Escudero and Baeyens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alejandro Martín-Crespo, Centro Tecnológico CARTIF, Boecillo, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.