Empowering Energy Saving Management and Microgrid Topology to Diminish Climate Challenge

Abstract

Fossil fuels’ imminent depletion in the medium term and a growing energy demand leave little room for maneuver in which alternative generation technologies take on much relevance. In particular, in order to make use of local resources, these technologies have found a place at the distribution level, where they are treated as low-power distributed energy resources that require organization and management schemes, such as microgrids (MG) and energy management systems (EMS). These approaches not only seek to compensate for the deficit left by traditional technologies but have also engendered expectations about a “green” generation and consumption scheme, involving a general reduction in environmental impact. However, the environmental benefits that these alternatives can bring have, in general, been mostly assumed, whereas other objectives such as power quality and power sharing have occupied most of the research efforts in this regard. Thus, there is little evidence that confirms the positive effect of MGs and EMSs in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and actually, for the case of MGs, it has been reported that they could be detrimental to the environment. In this work, the areas of opportunity for both technologies have been analyzed from a soft technical viewpoint, mentioning the main challenges that must be addressed in order to focus on true environmental benefits. This chapter begins by showing the current panorama regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the use of renewable resources. Then, it inquires about the environmental cost of the use of these resources through its constituent parts. Thus, the environmental effect of solar panels, wind turbines, and storage systems such as batteries, as well as their areas of opportunity, is punctually shown. At the same time, it delves into the control and management systems within devices such as solar inverters or industrial alternatives designed for MGs and EMSs, and how these intervene in the environmental cost of the aforementioned technologies. In addition, some environmental analyzes performed on MGs and EMSs are shown to offer a set of challenges to be addressed in the search for a modern electrical network.