Economic assessment of converting a pressurised water distribution network into an off-grid system supplied with solar photovoltaic energy

Autor: Houssem Eddine Chabour, Miguel Angel Pardo, Adrian Riquelme
Přispěvatelé: Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental (IngHA), Ingeniería del Terreno y sus Estructuras (InTerEs)
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: RUA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante
Universidad de Alicante (UA)
ISSN: 1618-9558
1618-954X
DOI: 10.1007/s10098-022-02290-5
Popis: Converting a water pressurised distribution network into an off-grid pumping station supplied by solar photovoltaics represents a challenge for utility managers, user demand assessments evaluate the energy generated in a solar-powered systems to establish energy consumption. This work includes quantifying potential investments and economic savings that could be achieved, as well as the payback period which results as an indicator of the suitability of adapting to a power supply utilising solar panels. A tool (UAsolar) to aid practitioners has been developed, it requires a calibrated hydraulic model to account for the energy requirements in the water delivery process of pressurised networks. The authors encourage students, professionals, and decision-makers to use this tool to identify potential efficiency gains (e.g., delivery schedule, reduction of water use) and to synchronise energy production and consumption. Users can get results with low computational time using the software on six pressurised distribution networks. Practitioners should note that the irrigation networks have sized installations with a few photovoltaic modules, while in urban pressurised networks the results show larger installations are required. In addition, irrigation network managers can match energy demand with energy production by changing consumption over time, this could reduce the quantity of modules required and remove the need for energy storage. The payback period ranges from 6.08 to 13 years for the cases where the investment is recovered—(values that show that this investment yields a high return as the lifetime of the PV modules is 25 years). However, one municipality among those studied shows that in some scenarios it is not viable to convert networks into a standalone system. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and EU FEDER under Project TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P and by the University of Alicante (vigrob-157, VIGROB-303 and GRE18-15).
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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