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Integrating existing diesel station with renewable energy (RE) technologies into a hybrid system has been an attractive solution towards mitigating greenhouse gases emissions problem of diesel power system. Apart from offering cleaner power supply, hybrid systems could also contribute towards reduction of diesel fuel cost. Application of insight-based Power Pinch Analysis (PoPA) method to integrate diesel plants and RE systems with the aim to minimise total generation and runtime of diesel generator has been proposed. This work utilises an extended PoPA tool called the Probability-Power Pinch Analysis (P-PoPA) to achieve the supplementation of RE technologies with existing diesel system. P-PoPA can provide accurate results as those established from the PoPA approach within a shorter time of analysis as it eliminates the manual matching of power sources and demands step. Correction factors based on all possible routes from the RE sources and the diesel generator to the demands are computed to determine the minimum diesel power target for the integrated system. Result of an illustrative case study shows that 31 % saving in the diesel fuel requirement can be achieved after the integration of the existing diesel plant with RE systems. The result of the P-PoPA method is accurate with an only 0.61 % difference to the result targeted using the conventional PoPA technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid power systems are becoming more popular nowadays as they provide a good transition towards renewable energy systems integration while still maintaining power sources from fossil fuels. Uncertainties based on seasonal changes, weather patterns and demand fluctuations have been considered. Disasters such as earthquake, tornado and hurricane are becoming more frequent and unpredictable as climate change is affecting major parts of the world. Safety and resilience are two important aspects that need to be taken into consideration in designing power systems due to the increase in extreme weather and natural disasters. Safety precautions are taken into consideration to withstand major damage and ensure the power system can continue to run smoothly with no or little interruption to the power supply. Previous studies focused on optimizing the cost and efficiency of the system based on season change, weather and demand fluctuations. The purpose of this research is to develop a novel methodology to design a hybrid power system considering resilience and safety aspects. This research primarily focuses on the use of Decision Matrix Risk Assessment Technique (DMRA) and Power Cascade Table (PCT) to evaluate the impact of disasters towards the power systems with and without safety consideration. The results of the case study have shown that the implementation of safety can reduce the total cost by up to USD209.3 M when catastrophic events occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling tools for the optimal Hybrid Power Systems (HPS) supply planning and demand management have been relatively established. However, complementary tools that can provide planners, decizion-makers, energy managers and electrical as well as power engineers with graphical and visualization insights that are vital for better conceptual understanding of the problems, particularly at the onset of hybrid power systems planning and design, have just been developed over the last five years. This paper reviews the six-year development of the insight-based graphical and algebraic Process Integration (PI) tools for the optimal HPS supply planning and demand management, i.e., from its inception in the year 2011, until 2016. Known as the Power Pinch Analysis (PoPA), the tool has been among the next-generation PI techniques for resource conservation following the developments of the heat, mass, water, gas, materials, property, solid and carbon emission pinch analysis techniques. This paper discusses the progress, challenges and contributions of PoPA in promoting Renewable Energy (RE) utilization in HPS. Case studies on implementation of PoPA for HPS planning and design presented in the paper show encouraging improvement on HPS profitability and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feed-in Tariff (FiT) has been one of the most effective policies in accelerating the development of renewable energy (RE) projects. The amount of RE electricity in the FiT purchase agreement is an important decision that has to be made by the RE project developers. They have to consider various crucial factors associated with RE system operation as well as its stochastic nature. The presented work aims to assess the sensitivity and profitability of a hybrid power system (HPS) in cases of RE system failure or shutdown. The amount of RE electricity for the FiT purchase agreement in various scenarios was determined using a novel tool called On-Grid Problem Table based on the Power Pinch Analysis (PoPA). A sensitivity table has also been introduced to assist planners to evaluate the effects of the RE system's failure on the profitability of the HPS. This table offers insights on the variance of the RE electricity. The sensitivity analysis of various possible scenarios shows that the RE projects can still provide financial benefits via the FiT, despite the losses incurred from the penalty levied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of Power Pinch Analysis (PoPA) for the design and optimisation of Hybrid Power Systems (HPS) is steadily progressing. Even though PoPA has been developed for a wide range of applications in HPS design and analysis, the economic aspect still needs more attention. Screening of various renewable energy (RE) technologies in HPS is crucial as different technologies may have different cost and efficiencies, and affect the overall system economics. This work presents a novel framework for the design of a cost-effective HPS by incorporating PoPA with a cost-screening tool known as the Systematic Hierarchical Approach for Resilient Process Screening (SHARPS). SHARPS, which was originally developed to screen various process changes options in water networks is adapted to perform economic analysis and RE technology screening in power networks. Two strategies namely substitution and intensification have been proposed, in order to customise a cost-effective HPS. The presented framework provides a handy and effective measure to visualise the trade-off between the performance and cost of various potential RE technologies for HPS. Application of the framework on a case study demonstrates that the HPS design has been successfully customised with the RE technology scheme and capacity acceptable to the owner, while meeting its targeted payback period of 10 y. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybrid power system (HPS) that integrates diesel/biodiesel plant with renewable energy (RE) technologies has become increasingly popular to alleviate greenhouse gases emissions issue of the sole diesel/biodiesel power system. Integrated diesel-RE power system offers cleaner power supply while minimising cost of diesel fuel and diesel system maintenance. The use of Power Pinch Analysis (PoPA) method for the integration of diesel plants and RE systems into HPS with the objective to minimise fuel requirement and operational time of diesel generator has been presented. This work aims to achieve the same objective via probability theory utilisation, to simplify the PoPA procedure involving the matching of various routes for power flows. The extended technique called the Probability-Power Pinch Analysis (P-PoPA) can give accurate results as those established from the PoPA method within a shorter analysis time because it replaces the tedious manual matching step with correction factors. All probable routes of power from RE and diesel generators to demands are considered in computing the correction factors, in order to target the minimum diesel power in the integrated system. The result of a Case Study demonstrates that 19% saving in diesel fuel consumption can be realised if the present diesel station is supported with renewable solar power in an HPS. The result of the P-PoPA method is accurate with a very minor deviation to that from the conventional PoPA technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]