Integrating Renewable Energy to Power, Heat and Water Systems

Recently, the use of renewable energy has made a significant contribution on many areas of sustainable development. For instance, renewable energy has an important role in providing energy access to households and small industries. The integration of renewable energies in small industries can be a complicated task due to differences in the process conditions inside of them. Therefore, it is important to consider the process integration techniques. Among the main inputs of most industries are: water, heat and power. These are generally handled separately in networks and systems which are intimately related so that any change in one of them has an effect upon the other. This paper presents the integration of renewable energy in the form of photovoltaic power for running a heat and water system. More specifically it looks at the effect of power quality upon the efficiency of the pumping system. From the electrical point of view, there are various factors that determine the quality of power; failure to recognise them may result in adverse thermal and throughput effects. This situation is analysed in this first paper of a series of them by means of a case study. In a subsequent paper, we will show the way these adverse effects are mitigated and the type of hardware used to this end.