Design and optimisation of a control system for hybrid mini power plants with renewable energies for isolated sites and extreme climate conditions

The innovative technology of this R&D project is applied to the management of microgrids, autonomous electricity production installations, and aims to increase the percentage of use of renewable energy. The main drawbacks of renewable energies, especially wind and solar, are their variability and intermittency, which require the addition of storage and regulation systems [1]. These are the reasons, along with unreliability, why diesel generators are used in almost all remote locations, especially in northern climates. For these applications, there is also a large variation in loads depending on the season (heating and/or cooling) or time of day (morning and evening peaks). Increasing the level of penetration of renewable energy in these isolated networks thus requires control systems that allow: the management of several energy sources and storage systems, the independent operation of several production cells to improve reliability, intelligent management of loads through the implementation of smart-grid specific algorithms, the optimisation of conversion and storage penetration between the different resources available, remote monitoring of performance and diagnosis to minimise the costs of troubleshooting interventions In remote locations, the constraints associated with transport costs and the availability of specialised manpower require the use of multiple units that are easily transportable, robust and have maximum reliability [2]. We therefore propose to develop a control system that allows the coupling of multiple sources, performance monitoring and optimisation as a solution to the identified problems. The development is done in partnership with the ITMI (Institute of Technology in Industrial Maintenance).

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