5G-Enabled Energy-Efficient Operation and Management of Renewable Power Generation

Abstract

To handle the growing share of renewable energy resources in a modern smart grid, efficient operation, real-time monitoring and reliable communication support are necessary. This paper proposes an operation and management framework for energy generation from renewable energy sources with the aid of 5G technology that is energy efficient. The proposed model is based on the combination of solar PV, wind and hybrid solar PV, wind and battery generation units with a fifth generation (5G) communication layer for enhanced renewable dispatch, reduced battery curtailment, load balancing and communication reliability. The mathematical model includes the following variables: renewable uncertainty, load uncertainty, battery state of charge, grid support power, renewable utilization, curtailment ratio, energy efficiency, latency, packet error rate, signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio and communication reliability. Using several case studies, a MATLAB-based simulation has been carried out for a solar PV–only system, a wind-only system, a hybrid PV–wind system, a PV–wind–battery system, and a proposed 5G-enabled PV–wind–battery system. The results demonstrate 94.1% renewable utilization, 5.9% curtailment ratio, 0.11 MW average load mismatch, 91.3% energy efficiency, 7.6ms average latency, 24.8 dB average SINR, and 0.94 communication reliability, respectively. The results show that the optimization of renewable generation, battery storage and 5G communication jointly has a positive effect on the efficient operating of renewable power generation systems.