Review of integration of small modular reactors in renewable energy microgrids

Integration of renewable energy sources in the form of microgrids can increase the resilience of power systems and decrease their carbon footprints. However, renewable energy sources are intermittent in nature, and their availability can vary significantly with weather and the seasons. Energy storage can be used to make up for the resulting imbalance between supply and demand to a certain degree, but installing large-scale storage for this purpose can be uneconomical. Hence, other types of power sources are often still required, and in many systems this power is provided by diesel generators. The emerging small modular reactor (SMR) technologies can potentially replace these sources with cleaner options. These new reactors feature passive safety systems, long refueling intervals, and have provisions for load-following, allowing them to complement the renewable sources and provide a reliable, dispatchable, low-carbon solution for both electricity generation and district/process heat production. Key issues and approaches are examined and existing works are reviewed to show how SMRs can be integrated into microgrids effectively as a clean and sustainable energy supply.