Modeling of stand-alone Floatovoltaics to Enhance Energy Security in Gurubai Village Near Chilika Lake in Odisha

Odisha is a rapidly developing State in the eastern part of India, where 100% villages are claimed to have been electrified in 2018. However, the ground reality as illustrated in OrissaPost [1] indicates that 3860 villages in the State are yet to be electrified and many villages, despite being electrified, are starving for electricity. Among such villages, the Gurubai village in Puri district located near Chilika lake having grid connectivity experiences severe power shortage to the extent over 10 hours per day, despite being low load demand in the area. The generation availability is poor to meet its demand. Further, this site is prone to hit by cyclones which worsen the power supply on many occasions. In this paper, comprehensive requirements along with a survey on the feasibility of RE-based generation employing the floating PV solar technology has been explored and designed for the Gurubai village to meet the load demand and to enhance the energy security for the village. A stand-alone floating PV plant of 100kW capacity in combination with batteries is worked out. The site of installation of the plant is selected considering factors like wind speed, solar irradiance, temperature, frequency of cyclones etc. The optimal ratings of various equipment like solar panels, inverter, batteries, solar charge controllers etc. is proposed to minimize the investment. The proposed plan is modelled in MATLAB Simulink, and simulation results support the designs of the technical specifications. An economic analysis is carried out the comparison of the floating solar plant with battery backup in reference to diesel generation. The proposed design may be a role model for an electricity starved village like Gurubai.