Development of portable microgrids to increase flexibility in grid operations

I-DE has assessed the feasibility of a 'Portable Microgrid', a system that aims to reduce the environmental impacts of diesel generators (DG) operation in cities, whilst maintaining the cost-efficiency of the system. A range of scenarios that combine service duration, uses per year and i-DE normalised transformer's rating have been defined. The HOMER software has been used to run these scenarios' simulations to design the optimal microgrid configuration. The resulting microgrid design costs are compared against current operation costs of DG used for i-DE. Additionally, a maximum DG energy quota has been set for the microgrid design in order to make sure it is cleaner than the current equipment. Afterwards, the sensitivity analysis of the results against battery costs has been analysed attending to current, 2022 and 2030 prices. Results have shown that the optimal portable microgrid includes a DG that will provide the baseload and run at maximum efficiency. It will be complemented by a fully-charged Li-ion battery. The system will be cost-competitive when the annual uses are equal or higher than 60 and intervention duration are equal or shorter than 8 h. Finally, 2030 battery costs make portable microgrids feasible in every case.