Resilience-Oriented Dispatch of Microgrids Considering Grid Interruptions

By providing a reliable and economical supply of energy, microgrids (MGs) may play a pivotal role in the case of large grid disruptions. However, the resilience benefits of microgrids in terms of outage survivability that often lead to economic paybacks are not well investigated in the existing literature. To address this concern, this paper optimizes and simulates a grid-connected MG placed at a hospital consisting of a photovoltaic (PV) module and an energy storage unit that can adequately prevent a prolonged blackout. The impact of net energy metering (NEM) and diesel generator (DG) has further been examined for this hybrid system. Four different cases have been optimized and results show that the PV and battery work in tandem, both with and without considering the existing DG and NEM and meets all critical load demand during a grid outage. The findings also indicate that the proposed approach yields significant economic benefits for two cases relative to business as usual case.