Design and Optimization of Renewable Hybrid Energy System for Rural India - Feasibility Study

Electricity generation and distribution is a major challenge in India due to its climate conditions. With the current conventional sources of electricity generation-which are limited and economically burdening-the power demand is not met. Therefore, various emerging technologies to generate power from renewable sources and integrate it into the existing power networks need to be implemented. A feasibility study was done to find out optimal design aspects to provide electricity to rural areas in India using combined renewable energy sources. The database taken into consideration is the load demand of the selected location, solar, wind, and ambient temperature for the project. The study was conducted in a remote rural area in the village Tajpur, district Latur of Maharashtra State in India. In this study, a genetic algorithm-based multi-objective optimization model is proposed which can work on-grid as well as off-grid. HOMER Pro-Hybrid energy optimization software-is used. For the selected location, off-grid, PV cells, wind turbines, and battery storage are connected in such a way as to form a reliable and sustainable source to fulfill load demand for households situated in the area under study. Overall costing of the installed resources was calculated for the next 25 years in terms of net present cost (NPC). After studying the system, NPC of wind with battery is $40,600.80 whereas NPC of PV with wind and battery is $413,739.44. Optimized system calculations suggested that wind power with battery backup is the most cost-effective hybrid system.