Design and Modeling of Off-Grid Solar PV/Wind Hybrid System with Storage Battery for Rural Electrification in Ethiopia

Abstract

Hybrid power systems based on new and renewable energy sources, especially solar PV and wind turbine are an effective option to solve the power-supply problem for remote and detached areas from the national grids. Hybrid renewable set-up indicates that various combinations based on the renewable sources could be applied simultaneously to play energy in the form of employed in an off-gird supporting with battery storage as backup systems. In this thesis, solar PV/wind turbine/battery bank/converter have been simulated and optimized for the rural area of Tikishign village among the woreda of south Wello Zone in Amhara region of Ethiopia. Based on the design of hybrid system Primary load demand of the village were 260kWh/day, peak load of 49kW, deferrable energy is about 19kWh/day, and deferrable peak load of 2.8kW with COE $0.160/kWh were involved during optimization of the power system. Well known freeware HOMER and MATLAB simulating software tool have been used to design optimal off-grid system and energy management system respectively. Solar PV and wind energy were considered as primary sources to supply electricity directly to the load and to charge battery bank when there were excess energy generation. However, either in peak load times or low generation of primary sources storage battery bank could also be discharged. The load has been suggested for residential loads and deferable load (water pumping). During design of this power system set-up, the simulation and optimization was done based on the load demand, climatic data, economics of integrated system components and other parameters in which the total NPC and levelized COE have to be minimized to select economically feasible and technically capable hybrid power system. Furthermore; a fuzzy logic rule is also modeled to compare the possible potentials available (only solar energy, only wind energy or hybrid energy) and take a decision. The decision of fuzzy logic is based on the instructional rules written on it.