Hybrid Renewable Energy System Optimization Using Oscillating Water Column Technology for an Island Microgrid

Abstract

Hybrid renewable energy systems offer a viable pathway for improving the sustainability and reliability of isolated island microgrids. This research presents a techno-economic optimization of a Solar–Wind–Wave hybrid system incorporating Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology for the Nusa Penida microgrid. Using HOMER Pro, three operational scenarios were formulated to assess system performance under varying renewable penetration and storage capacities. The optimized fully renewable scenario achieves the lowest LCOE at 0.191 USD/kWh, outperforming the existing diesel-based system at 0.485 USD/kWh. OWC integration contributes 154.03 MWh/year of stable energy, effectively mitigating intermittency associated with solar and wind resources. Battery storage limitations significantly elevate excess generation, unmet load probability, and capacity shortage events. Furthermore, distributed deployment of PV and storage assets reduces feeder losses by more than 50%. The study underscores the critical role of marine energy and optimal storage sizing in enabling high-renewable microgrid configurations