Conference article

In view of the expanding Renewable Energy Sources (RES) generation worldwide and in particular in European Union; it is crucial for every country to consider the cost of integrating the necessary mixture of RESE technologies in their existing and future generation systems. In this work; an optimization model for the integration of RES electricity (RES-E) technologies in power generation systems is developed. The purpose of the optimization procedure is to assess the unavoidable increase in the cost of electricity of a given power generation system at different RES-E penetration levels. The optimization model developed uses a genetic algorithm (GA) technique for the calculation of both the additional cost of electricity due to the large penetration of RES-E technologies as well as the required RES-E levy in the electricity bills in order to fund this RES-E penetration. The above GA procedure enables the estimation of the level of the adequate (or eligible) feed-intariff (FiT) to be offered to future RES-E systems. The overall cost increase in the electricity sector for the promotion of RES-E technologies; for a given period; is analyzed taking into account factors; such as; the fuel avoidance cost; the carbon dioxide emissions avoidance cost; the conventional power system increased operation cost; etc. The applicability of the developed optimization model is applied to the small isolated power generation system of the island of Cyprus. The results indicated that in the case of 15% RES-E penetration by providing FiTs with a 10% internal rate of return the required level of RES-E levy in the electricity bills will be 0.53€c/kWh.

Power generation; renewable energy sources; genetic algorithm; optimization