Reliability evaluation of integrated wind/diesel/storage systems for remote locations

One of the most promising applications for wind energy is its use in electric power systems for remote isolated locations. Currently most remote and isolated communities depend on conventional diesel fuel for their electricity supply. Diesel generations in these locations are expensive mainly due to the escalating fuel costs. The associated maintenance costs and transportation costs are also relatively high in many areas. On the other hand, the wind speed in those remote areas is usually fairly high and hence wind energy has huge potential. Wind energy based systems have no fuel cost and can, therefore, be included in these conventional small isolated systems in order to replace the costly diesel fuel by renewable energy. Wind power generation is, however, intermittent in nature, and therefore, energy storage systems are often considered to smooth out the fluctuations and improve the supply continuity. The energy available for storage, and the stored energy that can be used at any time is highly dependent on the system operating constraints. In this paper, some of these important constraints are incorporated in a sequential Monte Carlo Simulation technique for the adequacy evaluation of integrated wind/diesel/storage systems for remote locations. The impact of wind and energy storage on integrated wind/diesel/storage system reliability performance is examined. Potential problems associated with utilization of wind energy and energy storage in small isolated systems are also discussed.