Sizing a Hybrid Renewable Energy System to Reduce Energy Costs at Various Levels of Robustness for an Industrial Site

The rising cost of energy in Australia is causing industry to look for energy sources other than the conventional grid. Industry has been slow to adopt non-dispatchable renewable sources partly because of their inherent variability, however their inclusion can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs. By using an alternative fuel production facility as a case study an installation of a hybrid renewable energy system is explored. This paper studies the effects of varying the robustness of the design with respect to load and renewable variability separately. Lithium ion battery packs are also included to act as a buffer in the system. The installation is modelled using a robust Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) framework and the potential cost savings are quantified at various levels of robustness. Broad sizing guidelines are drawn from the results for the case study that should result in a robust energy supply.