Converting from a complete fossil fuel energy system to a decarbonized one is crucial to mitigating climate
change and protecting human health. Hybrid energy sources are better than producing energy from a single
technology. The combination of renewable energy and fuel generators allows users to cover seasonal fluctuations of resources and protects them from the unpredictability of fuel prices and supply. Nonetheless, the large-scale industrial demand presents a real challenge due to its consistency throughout the day and the intermittent nature of renewable sources. This research proposes a novel approach for optimal hybrid energy decarbonization for any demand type in general and industrial demand in particular. The proposed framework is developed by integrating the Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) for the simulations of Hybrid Configurations (HCs), the Electrical Transient Analysis Program (ETAP) for the stability studies, and the Potentially All Pairwise RanKings of all possible Alternatives (PAPRIKA) method to rank the resulting configurations.
An industrial oil and gas complex with high wind and solar resource availability is adopted as a study case. It is
located in Abu Rudeis, Egypt, and currently utilizes only 11 Gas Turbine Generators (GTGs) to generate electricity. Five different HCs are investigated, including PV and wind systems. The proposed approach considers technical, environmental, economic, and socio-political criteria, with a total of 21 sub-criteria, and reveals that incorporating a wind farm of nine 2-MW wind turbines with the GTGs is the Optimal Hybrid Configuration (OHC).