AHREPS - Alternating Hybrid Renewable Energy Power System for Load Prioritization: A Case Study of Otokwu-Mmaku Community, Awgu, Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a research study using a novel Binary Data Driven Programming (BDDP) solution coined AHREPS (Alternating Hybrid Renewable Energy Power Systems) to alternate between a Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV) Renewable Energy (RE) system and a Wind Turbine (WT) Renewable Energy system to provide continuous power supply in a rural-to-suburban household at Otokwu Mmaku Community, Awgu, Enugu State, Nigeria. The computational model for the Otokwu-Mmaku Solar PV (OMPV) and Otokwu-Mmaku Wind Turbine (OMWT) hybrid renewable energy (RE) systems are data-driven by a synthesis of data from simple function-fitted models to a generalized polynomial of order-1 for a 4-year duration (2018 to 2021). The results considering an average baseline load of 0.9kWh/day showed that using a 3-parallel connected 200W Solar PV modules and 5kW Wind turbine modules; the AHREPS employed the OMPV RE system for the months of January through June and the months of September through December all through the 4-year duration (2018-2021) but in the months of July (2021) and August (2020), the AHREPS employed the OMWT RE system in providing continuous power supply for the estimated load. This clearly shows that considering the model selection and alternating effects of the hybrid RE systems, the proposed AHREPS model can effectively meet the expected load demand of the aforementioned location.