The prospect of implementing PV/diesel hybrid energy systems for rural electrification in eastern part of Malaysia

In this study, an optimized design of a PV-diesel hybrid renewable energy system has been proposed to electrify remote locations in the eastern part of Malaysia, which are located far away from the grid. First, a brief review of energy status in the eastern part of Malaysia has been conducted, and then an illustration of the various electrification plans for remote locations in Sarawak has also been carried out. A review for a number of studies, each of them analyzing a certain configuration of a hybrid renewable energy system, has been also conducted. These studies were directed to supply certain applications located in remote areas. For the purpose of analysis and optimization, HOMER has been used where meteorological measured data for a few of Sarawak's remote locations have been utilized as inputs. The load profile being taken into account is for a typical household in these remote areas. Besides, the main scenario where the hybrid system consisted of PV panels and diesel generator as energy sources and battery bank as a storage media, HOMER has been also used to evaluate other scenarios. One of these scenarios is a standalone scenario, where the system consists of PV panels and a battery bank without backup source, whereas the other scenario is the diesel-alone system. It was found that the optimized scenario is a combination of various sources with a cost of energy (COE) production equal 0.214 $/kWh. In addition, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out to evaluate the effect of change of certain parameters on the COE production. Although the analysis in this study has been carried out for a location in Sarawak, the results can be generalized for any location with the same climatic conditions.