Decision-making between renewable energy configurations and grid extension to simultaneously supply electrical power and fresh water in remote villages for five different climate zones

Abstract

This investigation presents a powerful and useful platform for the feasibility study of hybrid renewable systems for rural electrification and potable water supply, which can be used in each country with different values of economic inputs and local renewable potentials. The main objective of present investigation is to introduce feasible solutions in remote villages with different climate zones. Since Iran is a country with different climates, five remote villages are selected as case studies. The selected villages have different values of prime and deferrable loads. In continue, the decision-making between the utilization of hybrid renewable energy systems and grid extension is conducted. To assess the feasibility of grid extension scenario, the distance from the central grid for selected villages is determined using the Geographic Information System (GIS). To supply the required potable water, the Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination system is employed. By employing HOMER Pro software, several energy configurations for each village are simulated. The results illustrate that for all selected villages, the stand-alone (off-grid) system is the most cost-effective option. The pure grid extension scenario due to the high values of Net Present Cost (NPC) is not recommended for small and large villages. The CO2 emissions of pure extension are more than 105 kg/year for all selected villages. By using pure extension option, about 25–43% of the share of overall NPC is related to the grid extension cost. With the use of stand-alone systems instead of pure extension, about 10–19% of energy losses and 100000–200000 kg/year of CO2 emissions reduce. Finally, to determine the breakeven distance for each village, the sensitivity analysis on load demand and extension distance is implemented. For instance, for selected villages with the climates of Semi-Arid and Cold, the breakeven distance is computed to be 13.5 km and 10.3 km, respectively.