Abstract:
Renewable energy sources are the key alternatives to mitigate the issue of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and
to meet the ever increasing electricity demand. In South Africa, most energy is consumed by the
industrial sectors when discretely compared to other sectors. Industrial consumers can reduce their
electricity costs by creating an optimally managed onsite renewable energy system. Hydrokinetic is a
promising renewable technology that has proved to offer a cost-effective electrification solution in areas
with
flowing water resources when compared to solar and wind technologies. This paper proposes an optimal energy management model for
a grid-connected micro-hydrokinetic pumped hydro storage
(MHK-PHS) system supplying the industrial load profile. The
aim of the study is to investigate the behavior of model when
minimizing the grid energy costs through power-flow control
variables and time-of-use (TOU) tariff scheme. The optimization
problem has been solved through the use of the linprog solver in
the MATLAB’s optimization toolbox for a period of 192 h as a means
of including week days and weekend days. The simulation results
show that the developed model can assist the onsite MHK-PHS
system to optimally reduce the electricity cost for the industrial
load profile. An 86% grid cost saving has been achieved through the
optimally managed MHK-PHS system.
