Operational Optimisation of Grid-Connected Microgrids Incorporating Hybrid Energy Storage and Demand Response

Storage systems are needed to boost the reliability of intermittent solar and wind resources in power networks. Rather than focus on one storage system or one hybrid energy storage system (HESS), this work models the operation of six HESS configurations in a Renewable Energy (RE) based grid-tied network. The objective is to minimise the daily operational costs of the microgrid while prolonging the storage lifetime by considering storage degradation costs. The influence of fixed tariffs and time-of-use (TOU) tariffs on the optimal operational of the HESS configurations have also been investigated; as well as deferrable demand satisfaction, charge-discharge pattern of different HESS and availability of the power-dense storage system within the microgrid. Results show that the lead-acid battery and hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) HESS incurs the highest operational costs, while the supercapacitor-lead-acid battery HESS incurs the lowest operational costs. The supercapacitor-lead acid battery and the supercapacitor-HFC HESS incur the highest annual storage degradation costs. The grid expenses were seen to be the same for all HESS under each tariff scheme. Lastly, decreasing the minimum storage level further by 10% from the 30% in the base case, led to an increase in the number of hours of availability of the power-dense storage system of five of the six HESS. These results have given a deeper understanding to the operation of HESS systems and can inform better decision making of the suitable HESS to be deployed in different operating scenarios.