Design of a Power Production System for an Industrial Smart-grid

Resumen

The development of smart cities requires theavailability of a sufficient energy access as a first step. Whileindustries in non-developed regions are still powered by dieselgenerator sets (gensets), the inclusion of renewable energies andthe usage of its excess to power different populations wouldfacilitate the inclusion of smart technologies. Although they couldbe powered by renewable energy produced on-site, technical andeconomic factors make that difficult. Moreover, the seasonalnature of demand requires an oversizing of energy generationand/or storage, increasing system costs. In this paper, we soughtrenewable energy systems that were economically optimal. Wefocused on an olive mill farm facility case of study to find theoptimal energy generation solution using simulation andoptimization tools. Syngas-diesel hybrids and diesel systems werefound to be optimal. The strong effect of demand managementwas an interesting finding, as it may indicate significant systemsize and cost reductions. Although the difference between marketinterest rates and the rise of fuel prices strongly influences theadvantage of incorporating, or not, renewable generation, thisstudy supports that hybrid syngas-diesel systems can makeprofitable use of renewable energy in small scale industryapplications.