Quantitative techno-economic comparison of a photovoltaic/wind hybrid power system with different energy storage technologies for electrification of three remote areas in Cameroon using Cuckoo search algorithm

Abstract

This research work presents a techno-economic comparisons and optimal design of a photovoltaic/wind hybrid systems with different energy storage technologies for rural electrification of three different locations in Cameroon. The determination of the optimal, cost-effective, and reliable configuration is performed for the locations of Fotokol, Figuil and Idabato which describe the weather conditions diversity in Cameroon with different solar and wind energy potentials. The sizing-optimisation problem is founded on real data of wind speed and solar radiation, with the principal goal of minimizing the hybrid system net present cost (NPC) while taking into consideration the load deficit probability (LDP) as the reliability constraint. The cuckoo search algorithm with a high convergence rate is utilised to find the optimal combination of the hybrid system with the lowest cost of energy (COE) and NPC which satisfies the LDP of the considered locations. At each location, six different configurations namely photovoltaic/wind/battery, photovoltaic/battery, wind/battery, photovoltaic/wind/fuel-cell, photovoltaic/fuel-cell and wind/fuel-cell are optimised and compared in view of satisfying the heavy, medium and small activities electrical loads demand of non-domestic subscribers. The optimal configuration is obtained for each activity and location in connection with the minimum cost and best reliability. The results revealed that the optimal, cost-effective, and reliable configuration for all activities and locations is a battery-based photovoltaic/wind hybrid system. The results showed that integration of 20 photovoltaic arrays, 1 wind turbine and 27 batteries with LDP value of 0.0486 is the most appropriate configuration which leads to the lowest NPC and COE of 23,024$ and 0.1570 $/kWh, respectively for satisfying the heavy activity load demand at Fotokol. The best hybrid system configuration needed for covering loads demand for medium and small activities at Fotokol were found to be 8 photovoltaic arrays, 1 wind turbine and 19 batteries with LDP, NPC and COE values of 0.0497, 16,640$ and 0.1942 $/kWh, respectively for medium activity; and 5 photovoltaic arrays, 1 wind turbine and 10 batteries with NPC, COE and LDP values of 12,860$, 0.2120 $/kWh and 0.0494, respectively for small activity. The optimisations studies performed at the site of Figuil considering the heavy activity load demand revealed that the cost-effective configuration which leads to the minimum NPC and COE of 28,400$ and 0.1937 $/kWh, respectively consists of 26 photovoltaic panels, 1 wind turbine and 38 batteries with the LDP equal to 0.0499. The obtained results also indicated that substituting the battery banks with a chemical storage which consist of a combination of an electrolyser, hydrogen reservoir and fuel cell is possible, though the cost increases because of the important investment cost of the system constituents. Integrating photovoltaic/wind/fuel-cell at the site of Idabato gives the lowest NPC and COE values of 48,864$ and 0.8056 $/kWh, respectively with a LDP of 0.0491. The optimum sizing of this configuration has 9 photovoltaic arrays, 1 wind turbine and 15 hydrogen tanks.