Hybrid Generation Solution for Mining Site

Renewable Energy Systems are eco-friendly and cost-effective but they have some drawbacks such as less reliability since their generation depends on meteorological conditions. An optimal design of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) that integrates two or more renewable energy sources like wind and PV together with an energy storage will increase the reliability in off-grid applications. Therefore, Hybrid Solar Wind Energy Storage Systems are becoming a popular field of research and its market is predicted to witness a high growth.
This Master thesis project is aiming to establish a scalable, low cost, long life, open pit mining operation. An optimal energy solution is developed in such a way that it is competitive in the market and cost effective in the long term. This solution ensures the availability of generation to align with load requirements and support the principal strategic objective to be a modern mining company by incorporating innovate and market leading solutions.
The project also aims at investigating an investment plan for an off-grid hybrid renewable solution to be able to meet a mine load demand, located in Western Australia. The hybrid solution considers the optimal sizing of the distributed energy sources (wind, solar diesel generation, and a battery energy storage), system configuration considering different aspects such as technical (i.e., supply-demand balance) and economical (such as budget limit).

The following topics were covered in the project:
• Study of the demand profile and local energy sources potentials (such as available wind/solar power)
• Building different electrification scenarios considering different energy sources (i.e. size and technology selection) and constraints
• Techno-economic assessment of generated scenarios in terms of fuel saving and associated reduction in CO2 emissions, maintenance costs and CAPEX.
• Reporting optimized result(s) for each scenario
• Evaluation of optimal solution(s) in terms of sensitivity to a range of input factors such as diesel price, solar irradiation, installed battery price, etc.