Potential Assessment and Feasibility Analysis of Solar PV - Genset Stand-Alone Hybrid Power System with Energy Management for Rural Area

Abstract

A most of Sub – Saharan African countries the access of electricity supply is extremely antiquated compared to developed countries. When comparing Ethiopia with other African countries, the overall electric access and the electric supplying system is very low. Most of the Ethiopian rural areas do not have access to electrical energy and the urban areas are not satisfied with the present energy supply. Accordingly, Jarso Kebele, Kondo village is one of a rural community found in southwest Ethiopia, which the access of grid electric supply extinction is not available yet. Therefore, this thesis aims to undertake the feasibility analysis of Solar PV – Genset hybrid power system with energy management to come up with the best level of techno–economic availability and configuration for electric supplying to this rural village. The study conducted by sizing of all components of hybrid system analytically and modeled in the MATLAB / SIMULINK program to simulate a real PV system behavior, then a P&O MPPT technique, output results has a good performance than direct method. Also, the PLC-based energy management system has been designed to optimize the off-grid system. The model of Solar PV, diesel generator and battery storage were developed by Homer software for optimization and sensitivity analysis. Using the developed model the overall simulation results obtained were arranged based on the feasibility of power supply system has in ascending order to their total net present cost (Total NPC). The obtained simulation results show that the majority of the power is produced from Solar PV. The optimization simulation result describes total NPC of $154,090, and cost of energy (COE) of $0.298/kWh is minimum best competitive cost of the hybrid power system to electrify the community. Finally, this investigation identified that the hybrid system PV/diesel generator/battery is costeffective and environmentally friendly compared with PV/Genset, Genset/battery, and only diesel generator in categories optimization results for the community.