Abstract
Electricity access and reliability in Nigeria is poor due to obsolete power distribution infrastructure. This could be improved by deploying wind energy resources. The present research assessed the thermo-economic, advanced and extended exergy analysis of deploying wind turbine for distributed generation in four Nigerian locations. The air temperature and wind speed of the sites was used together with Weibull statistical parameters to mathematically model the thermodynamic performance of selected wind turbine for the sites. The results show that the energy and standard exergy efficiency of the sites ranges from 0.16 – 0.44, 0.05 – 0.37, 0.23 –0.39, 0.26 – 0.37 and 0.12 –0.33, 0.04 – 0.25, 0.17 – 0.28, 0.18 – 0.28 respectively for Enugu, Kaduna, Katsina and Jos. The exergy efficiency based on the extended exergy analysis (EEA) approach was found to be much lower than the standard exergy efficiency for all the sites. Based on EEA, Enugu, Kaduna, Katsina and Jos has exergy efficiency of 1.05, 0.73, 2.52 and 3.22 % respectively. Economic performance results showed that Jos is the best site with least monthly average COE value of 0.15 $/kWh which compares closely with global average COE value of 0.14 $/kWh for households. Katsina and Enugu have a COE value of 0.19 and 0.84 $/kWh respectively while Kaduna is the worst in performance with highest COE value of 1.13 $/kWh.
Highlights
Nigeria power infrastructure is made up of mostly centralized fossil-fuelled power plants (Ujam & Diyoke, 2013)
Since the rated power is constant for every wind turbine, the fidelity of the results presented in this research depends on the accuracy of the computed capacity factor (CF)
Comparative performance assessment of wind turbines for distributed generation in Nigeria was carried out using thermo-economic, advanced and extended exergy analysis approaches
Summary
Nigeria power infrastructure is made up of mostly centralized fossil-fuelled power plants (Ujam & Diyoke, 2013). Centralized generation alone is not likely to meet this goal because of its shortcomings such as high network losses and costs, highlighting the need for more reliable local power sources. In this context, a distributed generation (DG) technology based on locally available energy resource is a paramount alternative for electrifying remote areas. A distributed generation (DG) technology based on locally available energy resource is a paramount alternative for electrifying remote areas This is because of its so many benefits such as improvement in tail-end voltages, reduction of distribution losses, improvement in system reliability and power quality and emission reductions (Diyoke, Idogwu, & Ngwaka, 2014)
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