Renewable Integration in Off-Grid and Grid-Tie Microgrids

The paper focuses on the integration of renewable energy sources in a microgrid, examining both stand-alone and grid-connected configurations. In the literature, the generation portfolio is typically designed only considering the energy balance constraints, mostly evaluated only over hourly power samples. Given the increasingly important role that microgrids are expected to cover, the issue of microgrid design is explored, and in particular, microgrid stability and performance criteria are introduced to motivate the need for more technically sound approaches. Finally, a simple real-life example, related to an Italian geographical island, is proposed to show how Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) could support the microgrid stability incrementally to the simple hourly energy balance contribution.