Social SCADA and Demand Response for sustainable isolated microgrids

A critical aspect concerning an effective development of isolated microgrids is economical sustainability. Most of the efforts are related to social responsibility of local productive companies that look for avoiding long term commitments with the community. This work proposes a composed solution that combines a social SCADA approach with a Demand Response program. Thus, minimum maintenance costs and a better community involvement for both energy consumption and cost covering can be achieved. A social SCADA solution guarantees the participation of the community through an appropriate communication and information exchange procedure, allowing them to execute tasks associated to supervision and maintenance of the micro grid, and equipment repairing. On the other hand there is a demand response program that relies on a forecast of renewable energy availability as a function of weather predictions (i.e. solar radiation, wind speed). In this context, this forecast is sent to people so they are able to react and adapt their consumption, allowing a better use of the renewable resources and decreasing operational costs (fuel consumption). The demand response program interface consists of a 24 hour clock that assigns a specific color, describing the energy availability, for each hour. This approach is applied to a smart micro grid composed of photovoltaic panels, a wind turbine, a diesel generator, a battery bank, and a water supply system. Results show the effects of community participation through both operational and sustainability indicators, and the economic impact of community participation.