Towards Self-Sustainable Island Grids through Optimal Utilization of Renewable Energy Potential and Community Engagement

Marko Jelić, Marko Batić, Nikola Tomašević, Andrew Barney, Heracles Polatidis, Tracey Crosbie, Dana Abi Ghanem, Michael Short and Gobind Pillai
Additional contact information
Marko Jelić: School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia
Marko Batić: Institute Mihajlo Pupin, University of Belgrade, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Nikola Tomašević: Institute Mihajlo Pupin, University of Belgrade, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Andrew Barney: Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, S-621 57 Visby, Sweden
Heracles Polatidis: Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, S-621 57 Visby, Sweden
Tracey Crosbie: School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK
Dana Abi Ghanem: School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK
Michael Short: School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK
Gobind Pillai: School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-22

Abstract: Solving the issue of energy security for geographical islands presents a one-of-a-kind problem that has to be tackled from multiple sides and requires an interdisciplinary approach that transcends just technical and social aspects. With many islands suffering in terms of limited and costly energy supply due to their remote location, providing a self-sustainable energy system is of utmost importance for these communities. In order to improve upon the status quo, novel solutions and projects aimed at increasing sustainability not only have to consider optimal utilization of renewable energy potentials in accordance with local conditions, but also must include active community participation. This paper analyzes both of these aspects for island communities and brings them together in an optimization scenario that is utilized to determine the relationship between supposed demand flexibility levels and achievable savings in a setting with variable renewable generation. The results, specifically discussed for a use case with real-world data for the La Graciosa island in Spain, show that boosting community participation and thus unlocking crucial demand flexibility, can be used as a powerful tool to augment novel generation technologies with savings from flexibility at around 7.5% of what is achieved purely by renewable sources.

Keywords: renewable energy; sustainability; island communities; demand flexibility; energy management; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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