A Methodology for Determining the Proportion of Nuclear Energy in a Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy System

For low-carbon grid development in China, the nuclear-renewable hybrid energy system (N-R HES) gains interest nowadays. The proportion of nuclear energy influences the system economy and efficiency. A methodology is developed in this paper to determine the proportion of nuclear energy in an N-R HES. Wuwei is chosen as the exemplar region to interpret this methodology. Nuclear energy is assumed to cover 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the baseload. The rest load can be covered by renewable energy sources. The optimal sizing of this N-R HES is performed with a Simulink model. The optimization goal is minimum system cost. In addition to the system cost, the efficiency of electricity utilization is calculated to evaluate the rationality of the system design. The result shows that the entire baseload of Wuwei should be covered by nuclear energy. Further, this methodology can be used to determine the nuclear energy proportions of other regions in future work