The Sources of Turkey's First Smart Microgrid Are Managed by TOBB ETÜ's Students

The first microgrid in Turkey is erected and installed with the support of TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) as a part of SEAS (Smart Energy Aware Systems) IREA 2 project through the cooperation of Başkent EDAŞ and Gazi Technopark at Gazi Technopark's Gölbaşı Campus. A microgrid is a form of grid management, which interconnects the distributed energy sources, energy storage facilities and equipment and the energy loads, and which acts as a single entity in its interactions with the mains network.  The increasing demand for energy of our time requires self-managing smart microgrids. Based on the advancements in the information and communication technologies; the smart grid approach, which enables the effective management of the components of microgrids, have gained importance. Through the course of this project, a decision support system has been developed for the energy source planning of this microgrid erected and installed at Gazi Technopark.

Firstly; the profiles of the generation and consumption data of the microgrid have been drawn up. Two different methods, being the flow diagram management model and the linear programming, have been employed for planning. The objective function within the linear programming model set has been determined to be the minimization of the operational costs in the energy exchanges with the mains network and the primary clients while balancing the power consumption for the states of the grid that are connected to the mains network or that are isolated. CPLEX has been employed for the resolution of the model. The flow chart management model has been coded in JAVA language. The models set have been operated under different scenarios, and their responses to different situations have been studied and examined. Lastly; the model along with the entire set of results derived has been submitted to the microgrid operator in order for the same to be employed for the microgrid. It is estimated that, in the event the operator actually deploys and employs the system developed, the annual saving will amount roughly to TRY8,548 in the case of Linear Programming and to TRY2,708 in the case of Flow Management.