Industrial microgrids: technical study for the pulp and paper industry
Student name: Mr Shashank Vyas
Guide: Mr Amit Kumar
Year of completion: 2014
Host Organisation: Water and Renewable Energy IC, Larsen and Toubro Construction, Chennai
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Ms Harshitha S Kumar
Abstract: A microgrid for pulp and paper industry has been conceptualized and designed in the present
work. Biomass co-generation boiler-STG system, solar PV and biogas engine are the renewable
energy based Distributed Energy Resources for the proposed microgrid. Biogas is proposed to be
generated from bio-Methanation of the industrial wastewater. The biomass co-generation system
otherwise is an existing centralized resource that satisfies the steam and electricity needs of the
industry but because of the division of loads among the three resources, it is considered as a
distributed resource. The solar PV array and biogas engine support the boiler in a coordinated
manner to supply the auxiliary and process loads of the industry. Both of them are sized to
basically supply the auxiliaries during the daytime when the solar resource is available while at
night, the boiler takes over the auxiliary portion. Such an operational strategy allows the boiler to
run at rated capacity and sell excess power to the local utility grid during daytime while at night,
it can save fuel by running at slightly lesser capacity and still sell some power.
Smart features like intelligent control and monitoring enable the microgrid to perform dynamic
dispatch of distributed resources to ensure that the industrial load is met all the time.
The microgrid is connected to the local utility grid and can operate in an islanded mode
whenever required. No storage has been incorporated and intermittent solar generation can be
taken care of by connecting to the grid for stable power. In case of grid un-availability, the
microgrid will simply become islanded and the boiler will take over to compensate for the
reduction in PV array output.
