Cost Optimization of Grid-Connected and Off-Grid Hybrid System for a Community in Rural Area of Pakistan

Remote and far off communities are usually not connected to grid owing to their location and are not economically feasible. Rural areas possess great abundance of renewable energy resources, utilizing these resources for energy production are environmentally friendly compared to thermal energy systems for power generation. Thermal power plants are costly and releases poisonous gases which causes many environmental menaces. Where the grid-connected rural communities also faces the issues like load shedding and power outages due to which rural community peoples suffered a lot. These aspects are the core driving forces to motivate the scientists, academics, technologists and investors to discover and finance in the field of renewable energy systems. But renewable energy sources are weather dependent and site specific. The main obstacle towards the deployment and investment in these systems is the intermittent and dynamic characteristic of renewable energy sources. The most appropriate option is hybrid renewable energy system to overcome the intermittent nature of the renewable energy sources. In our design model the hybrid renewable energy systems are based on photovoltaic, micro-hydro and biomass to provide reliable and cheaper electricity to remote areas of the Pakistan in case of off-grid and grid-connected mode. The one and only tenacity and purpose of this study is to design reliable and optimized hybrid energy system by using HOMER software with lowest possible Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Net Present Cost (NPC). The hybrid energy system comprised of solar PV, micro-hydro and biomass for grid-connected and offgrid models. HOMER software analyze different configurations of hybrid renewable energy system and according to the NPC and LCOE most optimized hybrid energy system is selected among the possible configurations. In our hybrid energy system models micro-hydro and solar PV has been used as a primary sources for delivering the base load demand while for meeting the peak demand and for backup biomass gasifier is used. This optimization tactics overpowers the uncontrolled behavior of the renewable energy sources. By well-organized and effective planning we can lessen use of biomass gasifier fuel for power generation along with the system Net Present Cost, LCOE and environmental dangers are abridged. Keywords— Biomass Gasifier, Net Present Cost (NPC), Cost of Energy (COE), HRES, Microhydro.