Design of a sustainable polygeneration microgrid for the retrofitting of an industrial site: Ansaldo Energia case study

The aim of this paper is that of proposing a methodology on how to design a microgrid for an industrial area. In particular, the paper reports the description of a project, jointly developed by the University of Genoa and Ansaldo Energia SpA, to design a polygeneration microgrid for the industrial site of Ansaldo Energia company in the Metropolitan City of Genoa. The microgrid infrastructure integrates different technologies to satisfy the electrical, thermal and cooling demand of the site, among which an important role is played by the cogeneration AE T100 microturbines developed by the company. In the paper, the optimization tool AEN-MGD, developed to optimally design and operate the microgrid, is described and different possible configurations of the microgrid are investigated and analysed from the technical, economic and environmental point of view. The proposed model has a general validity and it can be used to design and operate other similar energy infrastructures.