Simulation of wind-diesel hybrid power system for a rural community in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper presents a Wind-and-Diesel Hybrid power system to be sited at Abonnema, a community located in the suburb of Port Harcourt, Rivers State of Nigeria (latitude 4.71N, longitude 6.79E).This was achieved through five phases of work: a wind resource assessment was undertaken using Weibull probability distribution; an optimal wind turbine blade was designed applying the tip-loss model approach; the hybrid system was sized; Simulation using MATLAB® programme were performed on the hybrid power system; and an economic analysis was conducted on the system adopting the life cycle cost method. The results obtained on the wind data analysis showed that even at a high hub height, the wind speed of Port Harcourt zone is low. The simulation results obtained shows that wind-and-diesel hybrid power system with battery storage can be operated suitably to obtain a more reliable power supply as well as improve fuel savings. Economic analysis conducted shows the positive benefits of implementing the hybrid wind-and-diesel power system rather than continuing with the existing diesel power plant over the project life cycle of 20 years.Keywords: Wind power, diesel generator, hybrid power, design and simulation of power system.