Design and Economic Assessment of a RES-Based Microgrid for an Energy Community

Abstract

In the present paper a general approach aimed to the design of a microgrid, supplied by renewable energy sources (RES) for the accomplishment of an energy community, is presented. The criteria followed for designing the microgrid have been at first well-defined and then implemented to a case of study. The real energy system chosen as case of study is the municipality of Benetutti in Italy. This municipality has the suitable conditions for the development of a RES based microgrid due to its infrastructures, its electricity requirement and due to actual/potential energy production. In this paper have been analysed both the electricity demand and the potential production from RES. These information have supported the microgrid design using both in house and commercial simulation tools able to maximize the instantaneous power balance, considering all the system constraints. Finally the economic assessment has been developed in order to evaluate the benefits considering the sensitivity analysis based on the main technical and economic variables.