Integration of Renewable Energy Sources Using Microgrids, Virtual Power Plants and the Energy Hub Approach

The amount of generation of renewable energy sources in the European grid has strongly increased. In 2005 eight times more energy was generated by RES compared to 1990. In the future the EU wants to promote the integration of RES. Mainly the use of wind energy and biomass should be expanded. As to date, RES were connected to the distribution grid usually with a ”fit and forget” approach. Due to the increasing number of RES better solutions to connect RES are searched. Therefore, virtual power plants, microgrids or energy hubs could be used. This thesis presents these three concepts and gives an overview of today’s applications. In the third chapter ten criteria were established to compare the three concepts. Thereby, it results that the concepts have different key aspects and do not compete against each other. In the following chapter a SWOT analysis to each concept is done, to summarize the third chapter and emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of every concept. In the fifth chapter attempts to combine the strengths of the concepts are developed. It results that the multi-energy carrier approach of the energy hub concept should be used to improve virtual power plants and microgrids.