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Hybrid microgrids, integrating local energy resources, present a promising but challenging solution, especially in areas with limited or no access to the national grid. Reliable operation of off-grid energy systems necessitates sustainable energy sources, given the intermittent nature of renewables. While fossil fuel diesel generators mitigate risks, they increase carbon emissions. This study assesses the viability of integrating a very small modular renewable energy reactor into a microgrid for replacing conventional diesel generators, substantially curbing greenhouse gas emissions. A comprehensive analysis, including design and economic evaluation, was conducted for an off-grid community microgrid with an annual generation and load of 8.5 GWh and 7.8 GWh, respectively. The proposed microgrid configurations incorporate very small modular reactors, alongside solar, wind, and battery storage systems. MATLAB modeling and simulation across eight cases, accounting for seasonal variations, demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of case 7. This configuration, integrating modular reactors, photovoltaics, wind turbines, and battery storage, satisfactorily meets load demands. Notably, it boasts a high internal rate of return up to ~31% and a shorter payback period of around 4 years compared to alternative scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is considered to be sustainable solution to the energy crisis and climate change. The transition to renewable energy needs to be considered on a sectoral basis and one such sector that can potentially decarbonized with renewable energy is the telecommunication sector. Several base transceiver stations (BTS) in remote regions have unstable electric supply systems. Diesel generators (DG) are a common solution to energy problems on such telecommunication sites. However, they have high fuel costs on the global market and contribute to high carbon emissions. Hybrid renewable energy systems may provide a stable power output by integrating multiple energy sources, essential for supplying a dependable and uninterrupted power supply in the context of the telecom sector, notably base transceiver stations (BTS). Deploying such a system might also help BTS, which relies mainly on diesel generators with battery storage backup, reduce operational costs and environmental problems. This study presents the framework for large-scale photovoltaic system penetration based on techno-economic analysis (based on actual on ground data with least assumptions) in base transceiver stations (BTS) encapsulating telecom sector spread across various geographical regions. The proposed framework includes a mathematical model complemented with system design in HOMER software tool. The techno-economic aspects of the study were spread across 2, 12 and 263 sites, along with comparison analysis of photovoltaic system installation with and without energy storage devices, respectively. The sites included both on-grid and off-grid sites, which were exposed to high levels of power outages and subjected to reliance on costly and environmentally hazardous diesel generators. Optimization results showed that the photovoltaic system with a diesel generator and battery storage system provide a promising solution to the energy problem, with an average decrease in LCOE of 29%, DG hour's reduction by 82% with 92% reduction in carbon emission and a reduction in NPC of 34% due to the high availability of solar. The techno-economic analysis indicated that optimized photovoltaic system and storage results in both on–off grid BTS sites with better options, amid low cost of energy and free accessibility of solar. Moreover, the results spread across geographical regions aiming at a reliable and environmentally friendly option that reduces load on utility grid across on-grid BTS sites and substantial overall reduction in diesel usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are three main parts of an electric power system—power generation, transmission, and distribution. For electric companies, it is a tough challenge to reduce losses of the power system and deliver lossless and reliable power from the generating station to the consumer end. Nowadays, modern power systems are more complex due to gradually increasing loads. In the electrical power system, especially in transmission and distribution networks, there are power losses due to many reasons such as overloading of the line, long distribution lines, low power factors, corona losses, and unsuitable conductor size. The main performance factor of the power system is reliability. Reliability means continuity of the power supply without any interruptions from the generating station to the demand side. Thus, due to these power losses, there are voltage stability problems and economic losses in the electrical system. The voltage stability of the power system can be increased by improving the voltage profile. In this paper, different techniques are analyzed that include the integration of wind power, the integration of photovoltaic power, and reactive power injection by integrating FACTS devices. These techniques are applied to the IEEE 57 bus system with standard data using simulation models developed in MATLAB. Thus, the results of the analysis of these techniques have been compared with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to zero-carbon generation, the plummeting cost of renewable energy sources (RES) is enabling the increased use of distributed-generation sources. Although the RES appear to be a cheaper source of energy, without the appropriate design of the RES with a true understanding of the nature of the load, they can be an unreliable and expensive source of energy. Limited research has been aimed at designing small-scale hybrid energy systems for irrigation pumping systems, and these studies did not quantify the water requirement, or in turn the energy required to supply the irrigation water. This paper provides a comprehensive feasibility analysis of an off-grid hybrid renewable energy system for the design of a water-pumping system for irrigation applications in Sudan. A systematic and holistic framework combined with a techno-economic optimization analysis for the planning and design of hybrid renewable energy systems for small-scale irrigation water-pumping systems is presented. Different hybridization cases of solar photovoltaic, wind turbine and battery storage at 12 different sites in Sudan are simulated, evaluated, and compared, considering the crop water requirement for different crops, the borehole depth, and the stochasticity of renewable energy resources. Soil, weather, and climatic data from 12 different sites in Sudan were used for the case studies, with the key aim to find the most robust and reliable solution with the lowest system cost. The results of the case studies suggest that the selection of the system is highly dependent on the cost, the volatility of the wind speed, solar radiation, and the size of the system; at present, hybridization is not the primary option at most of sites, with the exception of two. However, with the reduction in price of wind technology, the possibility of hybrid generation will rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]