Impact of Operating Strategies of Distributed Energy Resources on Economic Design for Standalone Microgrid in Rural Area

Recently, interest in rural electrification is prevailing around the globe to facilitate the provision of electricity to the remote areas, as still, several villages have no/or limited access to electricity. Therefore, microgrid development for such areas is grabbing the attention of governments, scientists and investors. These stakeholders are working on providing sustainable and affordable provision of electricity to such areas. Microgrid design depends on various factors such as policies, investment, technology, etc. One of the important factors that lie under the technological area, is to select the operation of the microgrid for a particular site. The operation of the microgrid can be influenced based on various factors such as renewable energy resources, load types and social and economic requirements. This study presents the effect of operating strategies on microgrid design for rural electrification. In this study, a microgrid is designed for a rural area in Latin America. Four Operating strategies are analyzed in the design process namely, Load Following (LF), Cycle Charging (CC), Combined Strategy (CS) and Predictive Control Strategy (PC). Results for each strategy are compared in terms of sizing, economics, performance, and environmental parameters. And hence, economically and environmentally feasible design is selected i.e. based on LF operating strategy with LCOE of 0.277$/kWh. In addition, practical ways and their limitations to operate and manage the designed microgrid are also discussed in this paper. Obtained conclusions are viable for the rural electrification for other remote areas with the same characteristics as the candidate site.