Simulation-Based Economic Optimization of Nuclear Renewable Hybrid Energy Systems with Reliability Constraints

Growing energy demands and concerns about environmental consequences of energy generation by conventional methods led to greatest ever focus on renewable energy worldwide. Due to technological advances, solar and wind powers are almost reaching grid parity in recent years in various countries. However, the stochastic and unreliable nature of renewable energy sources poses problems with grid integration in case of large penetration. Hybrid energy system (HES) combines two or more energy sources and energy storage elements to stabilize the supply, thereby increases the reliability. As nuclear power is carbon free, concentrated and continuous source of energy, it is an attractive option to meet base load demand as a part of HES. Such systems are called nuclear renewable hybrid energy systems (NRHES). In this paper, a techno-economic model for simulation-based cost optimization of NRHES is presented along with a case study to demonstrate the optimization process.