Technical and economic viability of the installation of a hybrid solar-wind generation system in a Brazilian industry

Abstract The demand for electricity is growing worldwide. At the same time, the non-renewable natural resources that account for a large proportion of the global energy matrix are rapidly depleting, which will pose a major challenge in the near future. Therefore, micro-grid models that use renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are rapidly developing and are becoming economically viable alternatives. The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic viability of installing solar and wind power generation systems in the NOVVALIGHT electrical components factory located in Campo Largo, Paraná, Brazil. The most viable model was the combination of solar and wind energy, which would generate approximately 260 MWh of energy per year. Using financing provided by the Brazilian Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), this proposal has an eight-year payback period, net present value of BRL 149,097.42, and internal rate of return of 18%, demonstrating its economic viability.

Performance Analysis of Small Grid Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract The acceptance and deployment of electric power from sustainable sources, which are less polluting than fossils, have been a consensus throughout society. Specially, the growth of the installed capacity in photovoltaic energy has been considerable in distributed generation. In order to properly take advantage of this growing demand, it is necessary to adopt appropriate measures and procedures to improve the operation and performance of photovoltaic systems. The purpose of this work is to present such measures and procedures, under quantitative and qualitative analysis, using scientific methodologies and tools. In the end, a set of procedures was obtained that analyzes functional and structural aspects of small grid-connected photovoltaic systems. Its validation was carried out in a case study of photovoltaic system of the Department of Electrical Engineering (DELT) of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR, Brazil).

Integrated project of a smart microgrid allied with energy management: An initiative to reduce electrical energy costs

Abstract Electricity is undoubtedly one of the most important resources in the modern world. As the demand for electric energy increases, conventional resources that are transformed into electric energy are being exhausted, generating a need to search for alternative sources, resulting in a significant increase in energy costs. This study presents an integrated project of an intelligent microgrid and energy management aimed at reducing energy costs. At the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), electricity represents an annual cost of over BRL 13 million, which is the third largest operating expense of the university. In addition, the public education budget in Brazil has been decreased in recent years. Therefore, this study was conducted within the scope of UFPR and aimed to analyze three alternatives to reduce electric energy costs: i) demand management through an analysis of energy bills, ii) migration to the free energy market, and iii) the development of an in-house photovoltaic generation facility. A computational tool to optimize the contracted demand and simulate the annual savings with the free market and distributed generation projects was developed using Microsoft Excel. Payback, the net present value, and the internal rate of return were calculated. Finally, the economic viability of all alternatives was proven, with demand management demonstrating an economic potential of greater than BRL 500,000 per year, use of the free market saving more than BRL 300,000, and the developed in-house photovoltaic generation system achieving an economic impact of more than BRL 600,000 per year.

Energy Management in Industry: An Enterprise Engineering Approach

ABSTRACT Companies have needs and experience new opportunities to build their structure and align organizational process to achieve energy management with higher priority facing economic and environmental issues. The objective of this paper is to present the design and modeling of the Energy Management System (EnMS) in energy-intensive industries in an enterprise engineering approach, according to the management discipline called Business Process Management (BPM). The design of the process is based on the ISO 50001 standard and in good practices cited in the scientific literature. The methodology is characterized as basic, experimental, qualitative, and oriented according to the BPM development cycle. The process design created in the "should be" format presents a framework based on the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) cycle. The process is described in a necessary and sufficient way, arranging activities, actors and roles to establish an energy management process. The key process model of the energy review was developed in the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). The design and modeling allows to: analyze the EnMS as a process for understanding the activities; assist decision making; automate processes; enable collaboration; allow alignment of the process with the strategy; support the change and assisting with the evaluation of the organizational potential to implement the EnMS.