Báez-Fernández, Héctor E.

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Análisis económico sobre el uso de contratos de compra de energía solar en infraestructuras de pequeños negocios
(2013) Báez-Fernández, Héctor E.; Méndez-Piñero, Mayra I.; College of Engineering; Resto Batalla, Pedro; Baigés Valentín, Iván J.; Department of Industrial Engineering; Vega Torres, José I.
The crude oil dependence in Puerto Rico motivates the implementation of renewable energy sources such as solar energy. Unfortunately, there are several obstacles for this technology to become an acceptable option for general consumption such as uncertainties in the initial investment and margin of savings. The power purchasing agreements are established as a solution instead of making a capital investment or green loan. Commonly, these agreements are established between electric utilities and investors of generation systems higher than 50kW on infrastructure of an external owner. This research focuses on small business owners of up to 50kW. A robust methodology is presented to evaluate the economic feasibility of these agreements including factors such as contract length, electricity price, and profit margins. Sensitivity analyses show that the initial investment is the most critical factor. Therefore, a linear programing model was formulated to minimize this investment by selecting an optimum system configuration.