Sustainable energy system planning for the management of MGs: a case study in New South Wales, Australia

Microgrids (MGs) and their enabling technologies (e.g. small-scale renewable energy generation, energy storage systems, demand response, and information and communication systems) have attracted increasing attention in the past few years as they are expected to play an important role in future sustainable energy systems. There is a significant research gap in how to plan and manage energy systems with growing numbers of MGs. In this study, an energy system expansion planning (EP) model is used to investigate the quantitative impacts of MGs on energy system sustainability. The EP design problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimisation problem with a range of technical constraints such as AC power flow, reliability, and power quality constraints, as well as including variable and fixed costs. Several case studies are undertaken on electricity networks in New South Wales, Australia. The results confirm that MGs can significantly improve a system's efficiency. However, this efficiency improvement is influenced by factors such as the ratio of the MG participation, the network topology, and other specific power system constraints.