Modeling and Optimization of a Nuclear Integrated Energy System for the Remote Microgrid on El Hierro

Logan Williams (), J. Michael Doster and Daniel Mikkelson
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Logan Williams: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA
J. Michael Doster: Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Daniel Mikkelson: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-23

Abstract: Nuclear microreactors are a potential technology to provide heat and electricity for remote microgrids. There is potential for the microgrid on the island of El Hierro to use a microreactor, within an integrated energy system (IES), to generate electricity and provide desalinated water. This work proposes a workflow for optimizing and analyzing IESs for microgrids. In this study, an IES incorporating a microreactor, thermal energy storage (TES) system, combined heat and power plant, and a thermal desalination plant was designed, optimized, and analyzed using Idaho National Laboratory’s Framework for Optimization of Resources and Economics (FORCE) toolset. The optimization tool, Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON), was used to determine the optimal capacity sizes and dispatch for the reactor and thermal energy storage systems to meet demand. The optimized reactor and TES sizes were found to be 11.61 MW th and 58.47 MWh th , respectively, when optimizing the IES to replace 95% of the island’s existing diesel generation needs. A dynamic model of the system was created in the Modelica language, using models from the HYBRID repository, to analyze and verify the dispatch from the optimizer. The dynamic model was able to meet the ramp rates while maintaining reactor power with minimal control adjustments.

Keywords: microgrid; microreactor; Modelica; integrated energy systems; thermal energy storage; desalination (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: 2024
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