Autonomous Power System Configurations

At the beginning, the book includes definitions, technical overview and economic evaluation of conventional fossil fuel and Renewable Energy-based autonomous power systems, which are currently in operation all over the world. The most common autonomous power systems configurations are being described and all technical, financial and environmental problems associated with such systems are also presented. 

A basic scheme of the configuration of the existing PV-diesel autonomous power system is presented in Figure 5.2. The main power components of this system are PV panels, diesel generating set, batteries and a converter. To simulate this system and perform a techno-economic analysis individual costs (capital cost, replacement cost, operation and maintenance cost) have to be identified for each component. The identification of these costs was mainly based on the RETScreen database developed in Canada (Natural Resources Canada, 1998). 

The optimisation of the hydrogen-based autonomous power system, presented schematically in Figure 5.4 revealed that the optimum system configuration comprises a 15.9-kW PV array, an 8-kW PEM fuel cell, an electrolyser with a nominal capacity of 16 kW and a hydrogen storage tank capable of storing 450 kg of compressed gas. The optimal system configuration does not contain any battery... 

The operational characteristics of the optimal PV-hydrogen system configuration are demonstrated in Table 5.4. As can be derived from this table, the hydrogen-based autonomous power system produces 39,347 kWh per year, with photovoltaics producing the highest fiaction of this amount (around 72%). As expected the renewable energy fraction of energy produced from this system is 100% and therefore diesel fiiel consumption and carbon emissions are now eliminated. 

The configuration of the existing wind-diesel autonomous power system of Fair Isle is schematically presented in Figure 5.6. The main energy components of this system are a diesel engine generating set and two wind turbines. The identification of all kinds of costs for the main power components comprising Fair Isle s power system was also based on information derived from the RETScreen database (National Resources Canada, 1998). 

The software has been equipped with a fimction such that it is not only able to conduct experiments with one column/organic modifier/buffer combination, but to automatically optimize a method by trying different column/organic modifier/ buffer combinations. The system provides imattended HPLC method development and performs autonomous development and optimization of isocratic and gradient methods for selection of the best variant column, pH value, solvent Two typical hardware configurations and other mixed combinations are supported by ChromSword standard and powerful. 

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