Optimal sizing and energy management of a grid-connected microgrid using HOMER software

Microgrids are defined as power systems, which have small scale and low voltage level. Isolated and remote areas, small loads and places are usually faced with problem of lack of accessibility to main power grid. Microgrids can be an appropriate choice for these areas regarding to environmental and economic aspects. These grids are appropriate to meet various kinds of loads such as domestic, industrial and agricultural type. In this paper, the HOMER software is utilized to determine the size of electrical resources in a microgrid, which has interactions with power market. The goal of proposed method is related to optimal sizing and management of renewable resources and storage unit with considering satisfaction of loads and the fossil fuel dependency reduction. Under study microgrid includes wind, solar and microturbine as the main resources and battery and fuel cell as the storage units. The load data are corresponded to a standard test system, and the wind speed and solar radiation data are belonged to the city of Nain, where is located in the centre of Iran. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach for optimal sizing and energy management of a grid-connected microgrid.