Abstract
Ghana has been experiencing a lot of power outages over the years, mainly due to the heavy reliance on hydroelectric power plants, poor maintenance culture for existing plants as well as rising energy demand for development. These shortages have hindered the smooth running of businesses and academic institutions in the country. Institutions therefore operate with Genset for 12 hours with huge operational cost. This work therefore seeks to technically and economically assess a reliable alternative power supply for Koforidua Polytechnic. The building used in this assessment is the engineering block, which has five (5) floors with a total energy consumption of 227.520kWh/day for lights and fans. Homer software for micro grid and distributed generation power system design and optimization (NREL Homer) was used to do the optimization and sensitivity analysis with daily average electric demand of 9.48kW and peak power of 26.7kW with July, August and December having the highest mean values. The designed Photovoltaic (PV) system consists of 70kW monocrystalline PV modules of 250 Wp at a system voltage of 12V with 111 batteries and 17kW converter. The levelized Net Cost to install a renewable energy system (PV) divided by its expected time energy output of electricity from the optimized system at an annual real interest rate of ten (10%) percent is GHȻ2.38/kW. For the PV system designed to reach “Grid Parity”, the levelized cost of energy is estimated to be GHȻ2.03/kW with an annual real interest rate of six (6%) percent.
Highlights
The role the sun plays in human life on this planet is invaluable and cannot be underestimated
Companies, academic institutions and public agencies depend on electricity for their activities making electricity a key factor for development
Ghana has been experiencing a lot of power outages over the years, mainly due to the heavy reliance on hydroelectric power which is, more often than not, dependent on the country’s rainfall pattern [1]
Summary
The role the sun plays in human life on this planet is invaluable and cannot be underestimated. Wherever you find yourself from the provision of food (Agriculture) to the provision of energy the sun is inevitable. Companies, academic institutions and public agencies depend on electricity for their activities making electricity a key factor for development. In Ghana, apart from the national grid, which is mainly made up of hydroelectric power (1382MW) and thermal power (1245MW), very few options exist to supply electricity for residential and non residential use [1]. Alternative sources of energy such as wind, mini-hydro, solar and others are the options but they have not been exploited to a large extend due to Policy and Institutional barriers to these technologies [2].
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