Operational and environmental benefits due to significant penetration of Microgrids and topology sensitivity

Distributed Generation (DG), has started becoming a reality in electricity networks. This analysis focuses more on a specific configuration of networks with DG, the Microgrid. Microgrids can operate in a coordinated way either interconnected to an upstream distribution network or autonomously in case of faults in the upstream medium voltage network, like the power systems of physical islands. Under this concept, the potential benefits for the upstream network can be significant in terms of both losses avoidance and emissions reduction. This analysis focuses on ways of evaluating these benefits on a group of typical microgrids. Especially for emissions impact assessment, the seasonal variation of the DG production is taken into account. This variation can also have significant impact on the losses reduction. Results from the application of the described approach to a typical LV Microgrid interconnected to an actual MV network using actual market prices and realistic operational costs of DG taking also into account different configuration of topology for one of the DG units.