Community-based hybrid electricity supply system: A practical and comparative approach

This paper discusses the development of hybrid electricity supply system (HESS) for a remote community, which takes our previous study some steps further. Previously, we have proposed a PV-based system to electrify 24 houses during the dry and wet seasons. While this system can support the users' demand during the dry season due to high solar irradiance, load reduction is inevitable during the rainy season to manage the available electricity. The users will be constrained to limit the operation of certain appliances, especially the fridges during such a period. Therefore, this new study introduces a diesel generator to the existing PV model to create the HESS, which is expected to address the load reduction issue, thus, meeting the users' worst-case demand at all the seasons. The HESS is modeled in DIgSILENT environment; the design methodologies and analyses are based on the global engineering standards and practical experience. Its techno-economic and environmental performances are then compared with those of PV-only and diesel-only systems for decision-making. Results reveal that the HESS is a better option in terms of ensuring the maximum comfort of the users during the two seasons, with relatively higher reliability. Though it has the highest initial capital cost, its life cycle cost, fuel consumption and carbon footprint are lower than the values obtained for the diesel-only option.