Impact of renewable energy in the future smart power system

Current power systems create environmental impacts due to utilisation of fossil fuels, especially coal, as carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. In contrast to fossil fuels, renewable energy offers alternative sources of energy which are in general pollution free, technologically effective and environmentally sustainable. There is an increased interest in renewable energy, particularly solar and wind energy, which provides electricity without giving rise to carbon dioxide emissions. This paper presents a feasibility study undertaken to investigate the availability and usefulness of renewable energy sources in Central Queensland of Australia so as to further investigate the impacts of renewable energy sources in existing and future smart power system. The daily mean global solar irradiance and three hourly mean wind speed have been collected from the Rockharnpton Aero Weather Station, Queensland, Australia for this study. Hybrid Optimjzation Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER), a computer model developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been used to perform comparative analysis of solar and wind energy with diesel and hybrid systems. Initially total net present cost (NPC), cost of energy (COE) and the renewable fraction (RF) have been measured as performances metrics to compare the performances of different systems. Finally for better optimisation, the model has been refined with sensitivity analysis which explores perfonnance variations due to wind speed, solar irradiation and diesel fuel prices. From the simulation, it is shown that there are a number of factors that impact the integration and perfonnance of renewable energy sources to the power systems.