Optimization of a Hybrid Renewable Energy System for power generation on Greek Non-Interconnected Islands: The case of Amorgos

Areas isolated from the central grid, where power generation relies on fossil fuels, will have to deal with keeping their energy autonomy while increasing the RES penetration to high levels. In such areas this can only be achieved by the development of hybrid electricity production systems along with appropriate energy storage. Representative examples of such areas are undoubtedly the Greek islands. Specifically, the Greek island of Amorgos can become a model of an autonomous island with the installation of a hybrid renewable energy system at an affordable investment cost which makes it feasible. The study proposes a hybrid system that consists of renewable energy sources (wind turbines, photovoltaic panels) and storage technologies (batteries). The optimal dimensioning of each subsystem came from solving a linear programing problem that has the objective of cost minimization for the proposed system, while managing to maintain lost load at the lower possible level. The optimization took place in GAMS environment and Matlab was utilized to simulate the case study. The system resulting from the optimization process consists of 4.9 MW wind power capacity, 3.2 MW PV power capacity and batteries with a total power capacity of 2.1 MW and energy capacity of 15.9 MWh. The system manages to achieve annual load curtailment as low as 1% of total load and the LCOE is estimated to be 0.21 €/kWh.