Critical Assessments of the Potential for Integrating Renewable Energy into Isolated Grids on Vietnamese Islands: The Case of the An-Binh Grid

Renewable electricity for off-grid areas is widely seen as one of the top choices in supporting local economic development in most countries, and so is Vietnam. Over the years, many isolated networks using renewable energy sources have been deployed for off-grid areas in Vietnam. However, the use of these energy sources in Vietnam’s isolated networks is still facing many challenges due to its infancy here. The issues of reliability and vulnerability of these networks are not given the expected attention. Another challenge is that the issues of the operational security of these systems could also be negatively affected by the variable nature of renewable sources, including static and dynamic security. For this reason, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of integrating renewable energy into isolated networks, and in this case, using solar power for the An-Binh Island grid in Vietnam. The findings from this study suggest that choosing the right structure of the power mix could contribute to improving the operational security of isolated networks. Moreover, several solutions to enhance the reliability of this grid are also proposed. The NEPLAN environment was selected for simulation and analysis for all the scenarios in this study.