Advisory Committee Chair
Hessam Taherian
Advisory Committee Members
David L Littlefield
Peter M Walsh
Richard A Esposito
Pradeep K Vitta
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2019
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Engineering
Abstract
Distributed energy, also district or decentralized energy is generated or stored by a variety of small, grid-connected devices referred to as distributed energy resources, or distributed energy resource systems. The Distributed Generation (DG) systems can increase energy system reliability, reduce peak power requirements, and improve energy infrastructure resilience. In this study, a DG system using renewable energy sources and energy storage has been introduced for the whole University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus. The energy sources for this DG system are photovoltaic arrays, a natural-gas-powered Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), and wind turbines. The energy storage component used in this study is battery cells. SketchUp, OpenStudio, and TRNSYS are the software tools used in modeling the system. The results from the simulation were compared with the actual bills from the cost report to increase the accuracy. Optimization has been performed based on TRNSYS, GenOpt, and TRNOPT tools. By using generic optimization algorithms, the optimum DG system is developed for the UAB campus. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimum size combination of the equipment mentioned above to generate cost-saving in campus operations and reduce greenhouse gas emission. The results of this study suggest considerable savings over the traditional system.
Recommended Citation
Mu, Qing, "Renewables-Integrated Internal Combustion Engine-Based Multi-Generation Options For Uab Buildings" (2019). All ETDs from UAB. 2533.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/2533