Component size optimization of a wind-integrated microgrid system with dispatch strategy and resource uncertainty

Copyright © 2014 by ASME. The global quest for energy sustainability has motivated the development of technology for efficiently transforming various natural resources into energy. Combining these alternative energy sources with existing power systems requires systematic assessments and planning. The present study investigates the conversion of an existing power system into one with a windintegrated microgrid. The standard approach applies wind resource assessment to determine suitable wind farm locations with high potential energy and then develops specific dispatch strategies to meet the power demand for the wind-integrated system with low cost, high reliability, and low impact on the environment. However, the uncertainty in wind resource results in fluctuating power generation. The installation of additional energy storage devices is thus needed in the dispatch strategy to ensure a stable power supply. The present work proposes a design procedure for obtaining the optimal sizing of wind turbines and storage devices considering wind resource assessment and dispatch strategy under uncertainty. Two wind models are developed from real-world wind data and apply in the proposed optimization framework. Based on comparisons of system reliability between the optimal results and real operating states, an appropriate wind model can be chosen to represent the wind characteristics of a particular region. Results show that the trend model of wind data is insufficient for wind-integrated microgrid planning because it does not consider the large variation of wind data. The wind model should include the uncertainties of wind resource in the design of a wind-integrated microgrid system to ensure high reliability of optimal results.