Increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources in isolated islands through the interconnection of their power systems. The case of Pico and Faial islands, Azores

M. Alves, R. Segurado and M. Costa

Energy, 2019, vol. 182, issue C, 502-510

Abstract: The implementation of renewable energy sources (RES) in isolated power systems, as is the case of islands, constitutes both a challenge and an opportunity. The intermittency of some RES, namely wind and solar, originates problems of grid stability and a mismatch between power demand and supply. The interconnection between isolated power systems can decrease the RES variability and, thereby, minimize the problems associated with their intermittency. In this work, the endogenous resources of the islands of Pico and Faial, in Azores, were characterized and their power systems modelled. A scenario considering the interconnection between the power systems of the two islands is proposed with the objective of increasing the share of RES power in the total power production. The scenario was modelled using EnergyPLAN and the results show that RES penetration can increase 50 percentage points by 2030 in relation to the current situation. The implementation of this scenario requires additional annual costs of about 1.29 M€. Additionally, based on the knowledge gained from this study, measures that may lead, in the long run, to the complete elimination of the overall use of fossil fuels in both islands are presented and discussed.

Keywords: Isolated power systems; Renewable energy sources intermittency; Renewable energy sources integration; Energy in islands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219312101
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:182:y:2019:i:c:p:502-510

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.06.081

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().