Kaveh Rajab Khalilpour

PV-Battery Nanogrid Systems

With the rapid reduction in PV system prices in recent years, interest in the use of grid-connected PV generation and/or battery systems has notably increased. The previous chapter presented a methodology for concurrent optimal selection, sizing, and operation scheduling of grid-connected or off-grid DGS systems. Here, we focus on PV and battery sources as special DGS systems and study a few cases to investigate the performance of such systems in various conditions.

Sensitivity Analysis of Grid-Connected PV-Battery Systems

We investigate the impact of various techno-economic parameters such as PV/battery installation costs, electricity tariff, feed-in tariff, geographic location, and load profile on the feasibility of grid-connected PV-Battery systems.

The “Death Spiral” for the Utility Industry: A Myth or Reality?

The recent rapid decline in PV prices has brought grid parity, or near grid parity for PV in many countries. This has prompted public and academic interest in “grid defection”, “leaving the grid” or “living off-grid.” Grid defection has been described as a “death spiral” for transmission and distribution companies. Here, we review the arguments about the reality of the death spiral.

Economic Analysis of Leaving the Grid

The recent rapid decline in PV prices has brought grid parity or near-grid parity for PV power in many countries. Together with the expectation of a similar reduction for battery prices, this situation has prompted a new wave of social, industrial, and academic discussion about the possibility of installing PV-Battery systems and “leaving the grid” or “living off-grid.” This trend, if uncontrolled, has been termed the “death spiral” for utility companies. In this chapter, we utilize a rigorous optimization methodology to assess the feasibility of leaving the grid.

A Generic Framework for DGS Nanogrids

The goal of the research reported here was to develop a generic integrated decision support tool for concurrent optimal selection, sizing, and operation scheduling of grid-connected or off-grid multi-generation/multi-storage distributed generation and storage (DGS) systems with respect to the dynamics of historical/projected periodical weather data, electricity price, DGS system cost, DGS aging, and the major critical design and operational parameters.

Grid Revolution with Distributed Generation and Storage

Renewable energy resources, such as PV, are theoretically the most sustainable alternative route to address energy security and climate change problems concurrently. Nevertheless, they generally suffer from two key limitations, intermittency and limited availability. These constraints increase investment costs and meanwhile result in low-capacity utilization factors and therefore high here-and-now investment costs (though negligible there-and-after operation costs). Secondly, unavailability of the energy source (solar radiation, wind, biomass, etc.) at certain times (day, week, season, etc.) requires allocation of either an auxiliary power source (such as other types of generation or connection to the grid) or energy storage. Without this consideration, energy security and autonomy with renewables are impossible, at both macro- and microlevel. This chapter reviews the historical development of distributed generation (DG) and storage (DGS) systems in general and PV-batteries in particular. Then, an overview of nanogrids and their impacts on macrogrids is provided.

Introduction: Features of a Smart Energy Network

Climate change crisis, together with energy security concerns, has been transforming the electricity supply chain in this millennium. In this chapter, we discuss seven key factors that could reliably and viably expedite this transformation to the benefit of the society, environment, and economy. These seven smart components are smart policy and regulation, smart operation, smart network topology, smart generation, smart demand, smart tariff, and smart appliances.