An Optimal Stand-Alone Biomass/Solar-PV/Pico-Hydel Hybrid Energy System for Remote Rural Area Electrification of Isolated Village in Western-Ghats Region of India

Biomass based hybrid energy system is utilized for the electrification of villages, especially in developing countries like India. Hybrid Energy System (HES) components, feasibility study, and cost analysis are presented in this paper for a remote area Kakkavayal, a forest region in Kerala, India. A water stream at 25 m height has been identified at Kakkavayal by the Forest Department of Kerala. The village has been marked to study hourly measured meteorological and load data for a period of time. The performance of the proposed hybrid system is determined on hourly basis and optimum configuration, which can meet the energy demand with minimum cost using the hybrid system design tool HOMER. Parametric analysis indicates that with 2 kW solar PV, 15 kW pico-hydel, and 5 kW biomass gasifier generator together with five numbers of 12 V, 200 Ah of battery storage to meet the primary load demand of 56 kWh/d and 17 kWh/d (scaled annual average) of deferrable load. From the simulation, the cost of energy is found to be Rs 7.274 (US$ 0.164) per kWhr. The cost of energy of the proposed HES is also compared with the diesel-based HES. It is found that economically, the proposed HES is a very good alternative for present pico-hydel/diesel system.

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