Techno-Economic Assessment of Renewable Hybrid Systems for Rural Electrification and Distributed Generation in Selected Sites across Nigeria

The study considered the potentials and economic feasibility of solar and wind energy resources for rural-electricity and distributed generation from six selected sites of Nigeria. Remote communities cut off from the central grid and made up of 200 homes, a school and health centre were conceived a site per geopolitical zone was investigated. A specific electrical load profile was then developed to suite the rural communities. In view of this, the design that will optimally meet a daily load demand with 1% LOLP was carried out by considering standalone PV, Wind and Diesel systems design, as well as a Wind-PV hybrid system design. Further to this, an analysis covering the same sites was carried out to determine the commercial viability of generating and distributing electricity in the Megawatt range via distributed generation. The 24 years’ (19872010) solar, wind and other meteorological data utilized in this study was obtained from the Nigeria meteorological centre, Oshodi. The results of the study revealed that wind standalone system is the most economically viable substitute for power generation at most of the sites with costs ranged between $0.129/kWh and $0.327/kWh for Jos and Benin City respectively. More so, a huge potential for profit making by willing investors in line with the present tariff order for wind and PV distributed generation was discovered with all sites being viable on both configuration. The optimum LCOE for distributed generation ranged between -$0.021/kWh and $0.158/kWh for PV distributed generation in Iseyin and Maiduguri respectively. This is very much competitive with grid electricity. Thus, renewable electricity could be adopted and included into the federal rural development strategy, thereby reducing the energy deficit being experienced in Nigeria.