Cost Optimization of Hybrid Islanded Microgrid for Rural Electrification

Energy poverty is a big enigma, that needs to be considered for millions of people suffering in remote rural communities without electricity access. As the grid extension is cost prohibitive, the renewable energy sources (RES) are an optimal solution for off-grid communities. In this paper, a hybrid microgrid system is designed and simulated in Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) based on the estimated load demand and available energy resources. Three different rural villages from Ethiopia, Uganda, and Brazil are considered for a comparative performance analysis based on the least cost of energy (LCOE). Two different dispatch strategies, i.e., i) Load following and ii) Cycle charging are modeled with the different scheduled operation of the diesel generator and bio generator. The solar and wind resource data are obtained from the National Solar Radiation Database (prediction of the worldwide database) [1] and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) [2] respectively. The results of sensitivity analysis, techno-economic analysis and cost optimization based on LCOE verify the feasibility of the proposed microgrid system.