COMPARATIVE TECHNO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF “PV + DIESEL GENERATOR” AND “PV + GAS GENERATOR” SYSTEMS FOR AUTONOMOUS OPERATION OF A GRID-CONNECTED PV PLANT

• Datum: 2025
• 1. Verfasser: Stepenko , V.
• Format: Artikel
• Sprache: Ukrainisch
• Veröffentlicht: Institute of Renewable Energy National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 2025
• Schlagworte: outage scenarios; levelized cost of energy; autonomous operation; gas-fueled generator; internal rate of return; operating economics; average generation cost; specific emissions.
• Online Zugang: https://ve.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/576
• Назва журналу: Vidnovluvana energetika

Given the growing need of industrial enterprises for uninterrupted electricity supply under conditions of an unstable power grid, this study presents a comparative techno-economic and environmental assessment of two systems — “grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) plant with grid-following inverters plus a diesel generator” and “grid-tied PV plant with grid-following inverters plus a gas-fueled generator” — for autonomous operation. The methodology relies on grid emulation achieved through inverter-coordinated generator control, time-series PV production data, recorded (or scenario-based) outage logs, and generator fuel models expressed as specific-fuel-consumption functions of active power. We then compute the levelized cost of energy over the asset’s lifetime, the net present cost, the internal rate of return, and the specific carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions. As a practical case, we use an industrial printing plant with a relatively stable load profile and carry out sensitivity analyses with respect to fuel prices, outage duration and frequency, the generator’s minimum permissible loading, and tariff assumptions. The results delineate the conditions under which a gas-fueled generator provides lower operating expenditures and lower specific CO₂-equivalent emissions than a diesel generator, without altering the baseline topology of a grid-tied PV plant. Practical recommendations for enterprise system selection are provided, along with suggestions for future research (expansion to systems in which the inverter forms the grid autonomously, adoption of advanced energy-management strategies, and a deeper assessment of power-quality indicators).