The electric power system is the network of power system components that delivers electricity to power televisions, refrigerators, computers, and every other device that plugs into an outlet. A renewable, off-grid power system is a stand-alone electric power system that can independently provide electric power to the end consumer year-round. A major milestone for designing off-grid systems is determining how much renewable energy resources and how much energy storage capacity are required to provide reliable electric power year-round. I developed an algorithm to determine how much of each component is required for a photovoltaic (PV), off-grid power system. The algorithm requires the expected time-series power demand of the building and power supply of the PVs.
As an example, the algorithm was used to design an off-grid system for a residential building. By considering oversized PV system sizes, the algorithm estimated the energy storage capacity requirement for increasingly oversized PV system sizes. The result was a graph showing how much energy storage capacity vs. how much PV was required for a renewable, off-grid power system, which shows an inverse relationship between generation and storage. Since PVs and energy storage have different costs, the algorithm computed the price of each off-grid configuration and determined the most cost-effective system (marked by the red "x").
The algorithm is currently in the development stage, so I published the algorithm on GitHub to contribute my results. I have also released any potential proprietary rights. Here is a technical document describing the algorithm and off-grid system: http://ift.tt/2gl9YxN
To give some background, I got this idea during my final year as a MSEE grad student. For about 6 months after my graduation, I tried to start an organization to research/develop this idea. Afterward, I started applying for jobs with little/no luck, so I decided to write this technical document to show hiring managers what I was working on. If anyone wants to provide feedback on my document (or current situation) it would be much appreciated. Thanks
Submitted August 29, 2017 at 04:15PM by LiveWithEarth http://ift.tt/2vo2tNc engineering
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