Design of Standalone (PV/Micro-Hydro/DG) Hybrid Power Supply for off Grid Rural Community – A Case Study of Maji District (Tum) in South Nation Nationality People Region (SNNPR).
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Date
2016-12
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AAU
Abstract
Off-grid electrification from available renewable energy resources with hybrid power supply is the
best solution for rural town (village) where grid extension is found costly and infeasible. This thesis
studied the feasibility of the main renewable energy resources available for the electrical production
in the administrative city of Maji district (Tum) under Bench-Maji Zone in south Nation
Nationality People Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia.
Even though Tum is the capital city of Maji district, the task of electrification via grid system has
been found very difficult till to date for the main reason that its location is far from the nearest
substation which is about 174KM. Kerosene has been used for lighting for most of the communities
in the town; diesel power generation for milling and rarely for lighting and TV’s; leaving biomass
for cooking and dry cells for radio. In 2008, a local private company initiated to provide electricity
to the whole district which unfortunately could not be realized.
In this thesis, feasibility of renewable energy resources for electric supply system to Tum has been
studied using HOMER software as optimization and sensitivity analysis tool. Meteorological data
from National Meteorological Agency of Ethiopia and other sources, such as NASA and PVgis,
have been used for comparison of the result obtained by analytical method to estimate the solar
energy potential of the area.
Electric load for the basic needs of the community, such as lighting, radio, television, electric
baker, water pumps and flour mills, have been estimated. Schools, churches, mosques and health
centers are also considered as energy users of the community services. The result from Homer
simulation showed that micro hydro is the first best optimized system and DG/ Micro hydro the
second categorized hybrid system. PV/Micro hydro is found the third and PV/Micro hydro/DG
hybrid the fourth categorized result from homer optimization result based on the NPC.
The cost of energy for the first, second, third and fourth optimization results of categorized display
are $0.058/kWh, $0.058/kWh, $0.060/kWh and $0.061/kWh respectively, which is of course
extremely incomparable with what the communities are paying now for diesel generator owner that
is estimated at 1.46/KWh for the usage of one lighting bulb only but higher than a grid selling price
of Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) for domestic load which is about $0.027/KWh.
Moreover, load flow analysis is studied using ETAP software to know power flow of the designed
power system. A one line diagram is presented as the outcome of the design and after the
simulation; the power flow is indicated on it. It includes mainly 33KV and 400V voltage levels. The
result shows generation supplies the load plus losses on the system, bus voltages are maintained to near
nominal value, the system is not over loaded
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Keywords
Solar radiation, Hybrid, HOMER, Micro Hydro, DG, Load Flow