Off-grid hybrid wind–diesel power plant for application in remote Jordanian settlements

Abstract

Wind penetration into existing diesel systems to meet the load of a remote Jordanian village was assessed. Techno-economical analysis and thousands of hourly simulations were performed to design an optimal hybrid wind–diesel power plant to serve the loads of the village. The hybrid plant with 24% of wind-energy penetration, and comprised of five wind turbines and three diesel generators was found to be the optimal plant and it becomes feasible for wind speeds in the order of 5 m/s and more regardless of the diesel fuel cost. Utilizing this plant for electricity generation decreased the operational hours of the diesel generators by 10.3% in comparison with the diesel only situation. This led to a decrease of 21.3% in the diesel consumption. Consequently, 13.25 tons of greenhouse gas emissions can be avoided annually utilizing the proposed hybrid power plant for electricity generation in place of the existing diesel only system. Based on the obtained results, the studied village in particular and the remote Jordanian settlements in general are prospective candidates for deployment of the proposed hybrid wind–diesel power plant for electricity generation.