Coordination of Industrial Load Management and Micro-Turbines for Improving Renewable Energy Utilization Efficiency

Industrial loads take a significantly large proportion of the total energy consumption over the world. If they can be optimally scheduled to directly consume the local renewable power generation in microgrids, the overall renewable energy utilization efficiency can be boosted. On the other hand, the renewable power generation is uncertain and varying, leading to microgrid operating constraint violations. To this point, micro-turbines can adjust power generation to track the renewable power generation variations. Considering the above issues and possible solutions, this paper proposes a coordination method of the industrial load management and the micro-turbine dispatch to improve renewable energy utilization efficiency. The working shifts and production lines are scheduled in the industrial load management one week ahead to minimize the operating cost, while the micro-turbines are dispatched hourly to track the realized renewable power generation, keeping the microgrid operating constraints. The proposed coordination method is tested, and the numerical results show its high efficiency in improving the renewable energy utilization efficiency.