Planering och dimensionering av mikronät med upp till ett par tusen abonnenter

Projektbeskrivning

Projektet avser att göra en kvantitativ bedömning av behovet av flexibilitet i större mikronät. Det kommer att jämföras olika källor av flexibilitet och även att utveckla metoder för att välja lämpliga källor redan tidigt i planeringsfasen av ett större mikronät. Teoretiska metoder kommer att utvecklas och tillämpas på två verkliga fall, med 40 och 2000 kunder i norra Sverige.

What are the main lessons from the project?

Renewable based standalone microgrids are still not economically feasible in northern region of Sweden due to lack of financial incentives, weather conditions, among others.
Stochastic methods to represent uncertainty in the microgrid planning problem considering infrequent scenarios have a non-negligible impact in the planning costs.
Demand side management programs are affected by the uncertainty of response on the consumer side of the meter which is an element not commonly considered in the evaluation of these flexibility resource.

What is the next step to take the research results further?

1. To consider seasonal thermal storage in the design of the microgrids. Since the solar radiation is high during the summer, considering the seasonal thermal storage can help store the energy surplus during summer to use it during winter. The utilization of thermal energy storage could make the implementation of stand-alone renewable energy-based microgrids feasible.
2. Considering other types of demand response programs including emergency demand response and direct load control to hedge against the uncertainty of interruptible/curtailable demand response.