Renewable Energy Planning for a Microgrid in a Pacific Northwest City

This paper develops a renewable energy planning scheme for a microgrid in a Pacific Northwest City. An EMTP-like program is used to represent the power system and the control systems of the microgrid. This work is part of a real-world ongoing microgrid research project. The microgrid model includes hydroelectric generators, a photovoltaic system, and variable loads. Two cases examine the microgrid during both seasonal and hourly variation. Generation and load profiles are compared with an ideal storage system profile to characterize the shortage during islanded mode. Simulation results are presented. Suggested solutions and planning considerations are discussed for planning the energy inside the microgrid.