Optimal Sizing of On-site Renewable Resources for Offshore Microgrids

Abstract: The offshore oil and natural gas platforms, mostly powered by diesel or gas generators, consume approximately 16TWh of electricity worldwide per year, which emits large amount of CO2. To limit their contribution to climate change, a proposed solution is to replace the traditional fossil fuel based energy resources with offshore clean energy. One of the main challenges in designing such a system is to ensure that energy demand is met while minimizing cost and reducing environmental impact. To address this challenge, several strategies including microgrid systems consisting of offshore wind turbines, wave energy converters, tidal energy converters, floating photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage systems are being proposed. In this paper, cost optimization for sizing these renewable energy sources is investigated. A cost optimization renewable sizing (CORS) model is proposed to optimize the sizes of the generation and storage resources. The proposed CORS model considers the variability of the power outputs of various renewable energy sources and load, as well as the cost of different generation technologies and the energy storage system. Simulations conducted on three test systems show the proposed resource sizing method significantly reduces the total lifetime cost of energy while maintaining a high level of reliability and sustainability.