A case study in the identification of best combination of energy resources for hybrid power generation in rural communities through techno-economic assessment

Abstract

This paper illustrates techno-economic analysis on hybrid energy systems for a remote community near Gulbarga in Karnataka state, India, which is blessed with the best of solar radiation and wind velocity. In this paper, the possible combinations with solar PV, wind, and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) are simulated for an annual period in HOMER (Hybrid Combination Model for Electric Renewable) software. The objective of the work is to identify the best combination among these hybrid energy systems based on the Net Present Cost (NPC), Cost of Energy (COE) and Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) and economic calculations with the input of community load data, seasonal data, and plant equipment data. The comparison is performed among the proposed systems based on economic energy parameters. The proposed configurations are simulated for residential and commercial loads and concluded that the NPC, LCOE, capital cost and operating cost of wind and BESS system is lower than the solar BESS and solar and wind BESS systems. Finally, the hybrid energy combination of wind and BESS system is more economically feasible compared to other designed models for the selected area and the NPC of the system is 0.696$.