Microgrids in Competitive Market Environment: An Indian Perspective

Microgrids are believed to be the befitting green solution to the ever-rising energy crisis in the developing nations. The resource rich nations are rapidly shifting their dependence on microgrids to meet the reduced carbon footprint target at a global level. This paper addresses this issue and presents a detailed technical review on microgrid integration in competitive electricity market scenario. An in-depth coverage of the need for and importance of microgrid deployments across India is presented in this work. The relevant literature that highlights the significance of various energy storage systems is reviewed. The authors present the perspective of microgrid integration in a competitive market scenario covering both day ahead and real time market scenarios thereby discussing the concept of maximizing social benefit in a grid integrated microgrid framework. This work also focuses on microgrid optimization techniques and outlines a detailed comparison showing merits and demerits of all the techniques implemented by the researchers so far. The authors highlight the fact that green energy holds the potential to not only outgrow the fossil fuels but it shall do so by fetching the requisite economic benefit to the investors as well.