The amount of generation of renewable energy sources in the European grid
has strongly increased. In 2005 eight times more energy was generated by
RES compared to 1990. In the future the EU wants to promote the integration
of RES. Mainly the use of wind energy and biomass should be
expanded.
As to date, RES were connected to the distribution grid usually with a ”fit
and forget” approach. Due to the increasing number of RES better solutions
to connect RES are searched. Therefore, virtual power plants, microgrids
or energy hubs could be used. This thesis presents these three concepts and
gives an overview of today’s applications.
In the third chapter ten criteria were established to compare the three concepts.
Thereby, it results that the concepts have different key aspects and do
not compete against each other. In the following chapter a SWOT analysis
to each concept is done, to summarize the third chapter and emphasize the
strengths and weaknesses of every concept.
In the fifth chapter attempts to combine the strengths of the concepts are
developed. It results that the multi-energy carrier approach of the energy
hub concept should be used to improve virtual power plants and microgrids.