OPTIMUM MEDIUM SCALE WIND-CAES CONFIGURATIONS FOR THE ELECTRIFICATION OF REMOTE COMMUNITIES

摘要

Although renewable energy sources (RES) technologies are nowadays granted as established, back up power is still required in order to support the variable energy generation owed to e.g. the stochastic nature of wind speed. In this context, there are various energy storage technologies that may interact with the primary RES energy source and achieve 100% energy autonomy for the load consumption each time investigated, eliminating at the same time contribution of thermal power generation. Among the various energy storage solutions, grown interest is recently noted in the investigation of compressed air energy storage (CAES) systems. Acknowledging the fact that although CAES is considered as bulk energy storage, it may equally well be downscaled so as to serve small-medium size applications, the current research study investigates the solution of an integrated Wind-CAES solution used to serve remote communities. More precisely, an optimization methodology is developed on the basis of a techno-economic analysis under the restriction of 100% energy autonomy achieved. Furthermore, several areas of different wind potential quality are investigated, while on top of that two different system versions are studied; i.e. the conventional CAES cycle and the dual-mode CAES cycle, where the system may allow shift to the Brayton cycle when energy stores are not sufficient to cover energy demand. Results obtained indicate the feasibility of the proposed solution, while the importance of exploiting a high wind potential is reflected. Finally, the advantage of the dual-mode CAES solution over the conventional CAES cycle for areas of low quality wind potential is designated.