Optimal allocation and economic evaluation for industrial PV microgrid

An economic evaluation method and optimal allocation model of the industrial PV microgrids are proposed in this paper. The economic indexes include levelized energy cost, emission reduction benefits and payback period. The optimal model considering various relevant issues such as local insolation level and detailed investment costs is established and applied to improve the configuration of the PV microgrids for four different operation strategies. The optimization problem is solved by Particle Swarm Optimization to obtain the minimum annual energy cost of the system and bring more economic and emission reduction benefits for industrial users. The simulation results based on three months running data of a 500kW industrial PV microgrid in Dongguan City, China, verify that the optimal allocations by the proposed method can meet the technical indicators as well as the economic optimum, thus effectively optimizing industrial PV microgrid in both economic and environmental way. In addition, the added batteries can not only be used to maximize the utilization of renewable energy, but also enhance the system´s ability of peak load shifting. Besides, the sensitivity of the impact of different parameters on the system is also performed. The economic evaluation and optimal allocation of the industrial PV microgrids in this paper provide a reference for the application of similar projects.