Reserve Requirement Impacts of Microgrid Integration of Wind, Solar, and Ocean Wave Power Generation

Abstract

The ocean wave energy is a free and abundant resource which has led to exploring new methods to take advantage of the energy in an efficient and profitable way. The wave energy harnessing techniques are not as mature as other renewable energy resources ones such as wind or solar. Nevertheless, in recent years wave energy converters (WECs) have been gaining attention and restoring confidence worldwide in their role to meet the increasing demands and strict environmental standards Ocean wave power, considered a third generation renewable energy, is maturing in a fast pace to compete with other energy sources and is establishing as a core member of some renewable portfolios. [1] Different WEC projects are being and have been carried out throughout the world using different WEC technologies such as the Orkney Wave Farm in Scotland [2] or the Aguçadoura Wave Farm in Portugal [3]. These projects are of different sizes, some are utility scale projects while others are smaller projects which could be implemented in a Microgrid. In particular, an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) plant with an installed capacity of 250 kW has been deployed in Mutriku, Spain. [4] Mutriku is located in the coast of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain. In this region there are also 5 offshore wind turbines [5] and there is enough solar resource for PV panels to be profitable. This situation has inspired this study where the possibility of having a Microgrid in which the three renewable resources exist is possible. In [1] a study of the impact that wave power energy has on the required reserves is done and the conclusion is that when combining solar, wind and ocean wave energy resources together in a large scale power system the reserve requirements decrease and therefore the cost of operating the grid also decreases. This happens because of the nature of the different renewable energy sources which tend to compensated each other’s volatility. The goal of this research is to study how the reserve requirements are impacted by the combination of PV, wind and wave energy in the case of a Microgrid.