A Technoeconomical evaluation of a hybrid AC/DC microgrid — The University of Cyprus nanogrid

With the increasing availability of DC consumable appliances as well as the increasing penetration of direct current (DC) Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as photovoltaics (PV) and Energy Storage Systems (ESS), the future yields to the concept of DC power distribution systems. In the developed world, as the conventional distribution grids are based on AC, a hybrid approach of AC and DC grids and assets seems to be a good approach. Therefore, an increasing attention on the utilization of hybrid DC -AC nanogrids is expected to hostsmart building enabling technologies and to accommodate high RES penetration and gain technoeconomical advantages This paper explores and analyzes these advantages focusing on the case study of the hybrid nanogrid of the University of Cyprus and examines the economic gains of the system based on a techno-economic analysis of the FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy nanogrid. The main outcome of this study is that the penetration of the photovoltaic system as well as the energy storage system connected to the DC busbar of an hybrid architecture, can play an important role to the reduction of the imported energy from the grid and increase the self-consumption with the energy transferred directly to the load.