Optimal Microgrid Sizing of Offshore Renewable Energy Sources for Offshore Platforms and Coastal Communities

Abstract

The global energy landscape is undergoing a transformative shift towards renewable energy and advanced storage solutions, driven by the urgent need for sustainable and resilient power systems. Isolated offshore communities, such as islands and offshore platforms, which traditionally rely on mainland grids or diesel generators, stand to gain significantly from renewable energy integration. Promising offshore renewable technologies include wind turbines, wave and tidal energy converters, and floating photovoltaic systems, paired with a storage solution like battery energy storage systems. This paper introduces a renewable energy microgrid optimizer (REMO), a tool designed to identify the optimal sizes of renewable generation and storage resources for offshore microgrids. A key challenge in such models is accurately accounting for battery degradation costs. To address this, the REMO model integrates a deep neural network-based battery degradation (DNN-BD) module, which factors in variables like ambient temperature, charge/discharge rates, state of charge, depth of discharge and battery health. Simulations on six test regions demonstrate that the REMO-DNN-BD approach minimizes lifetime energy costs while maintaining high reliability and sustainability, making it a viable design solution for offshore microgrid systems.