Study of an Optimized Wind-Diesel Hybrid System for Canadian Remote Sites

Diesel generators are the main source of electrical energy that supply most of the remote isolated areas in the world. Unfortunately, these motors still pose enormous technical, financial, and environmental challenges. Therefore, the combination of these generators with renewable sources like wind energy in a wind-diesel hybrid system (WDS) could reduce these deficits by reducing the fossil fuel consumption and the operating time of diesel engines, and by reducing the operation costs and environmental harm. In addition, because the intermittency of wind energy and its dissipation during windy periods require an energy storage system, the WDS combined with compressed air energy storage (CAES) seems to be a good solution for this problem. Many recent studies have shown that the optimal management of the stored air reserve would be to overcharge an existing diesel engine with compressed air. Based on this concept, a new wind-diesel hybrid system with adiabatic air compression and storage at constant pressure has been proposed (ACP-WDCAS). This concept combines CAES and hydro-pneumatic energy storage technologies with a wind-diesel system. In this paper, we will present the operative principle of this system and propose a numerical model of each of its components. Moreover, we studied the effect of the pressure intake and temperature on the thermodynamic cycle of the diesel engine to determine the optimal values of the parameters that will optimize fuel consumption. Finally we will compare this system with available technologies in order to demonstrate its performance.