Numerical Design of an Off-Grid Wind Energy Systems for Small Scale Residential Power Supply

Abstract

The socio-economic developments of all nations depend duly on electrical energy supply. Nigeria as a country is faced with challenges of poor electric power supply due to the challenges from the power holding company of Nigeria (PHCN) which have left many households and isolated areas with no access to electricity. The fact that fossil fuel generators contributes to climate changes, renewable energy such as wind could be the best alternative. This paper presents the numerical design of an off-grid wind energy systems for powering load demand of two bedrooms apartment. The load demand of two bedroom flats were estimated and sizes of wind turbine, storage batteries and inverter with respect to typical load demand were numerically estimated. The performance of three 1 KW horizontal axis wind turbines of the same capacity but from different manufacturers namely; Bergey’s (BWC XL.1), Wind energy (WE.7) and Hummer wind energy (H3.1) were numerically tested using the average monthly wind speed data of Aliero Kebbi state, Nigeria. The result shows that integrating 1 kW wind turbine with 6 pieces of 200 Ah batteries on 24 V system and 1 kVA inverter would be feasible for 505 W (4.37 kWh/day) load demand with two days autonomy. The annual mean energy generated by the BWC XL.1, WE.7 and H3.1 using annual mean wind speed 5.03 m/s were 1782 kWh/yr, 1451kWh/yr and 1909 kWh/yr, attaining efficiencies of 44.45 % 33.22 % and 33.22 % respectively. Based on these results, BWC XL.1 could be best alternative wind turbine for the location because of its optimum efficiency. In addition, its energy generation of 1782 kWh/yr is 11.72% greater than 1595 kWh/year, the typical residential household load demand.