Bekele, Getachew(PhD)Mitiku, Demsew2018-07-062023-11-042018-07-062023-11-042014-08http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/6812Improved stove technology and efficient collector design using KOLEKTOR 2.2 modeling tool together with hybrid electric power supply system increase the reliability, the renewable fraction and made the system more cost effective and attractive to electrify rural area. This thesis investigates renewable energy resource potential study and feasibility analysis of biogas, solar PV, wind turbine and biodiesel for rural electrification. This is achieved through the uses of a model, HOMER, which simulates energy resources and electrical loads for a specific site, as well as various equipment configurations and financial data to create a cost‐based ranking of different energy solutions based on net present cost of the system. Under this study, the site used in the model is a rural Kebele in Jama Woreda at 10.548o N, 39.33o E and electrical primary loads for the community are estimated and forecasted for the project lifetime. Energy resources used in the model include Solar, Wind, Biomass, and Biodiesel. The resource potential of solar and wind resources are taken from various sources such as Meteonorm, NASA and SWERA but NASA is chosen for simulation. The common biogas feedstock considered under this study are animal slurry, human feces and jatropha byproducts where as the biodiesel is considered from jatropha seed. Various PV, wind turbine, converter, battery, biogas and biodiesel generator, sizes and costs are considered and sensitive values, constraints, and system control mechanisms are selected to perform hybrid system optimization and sensitivity analysis. In addition to the cost of equipments, the hybrid system power distribution cost is also considered. Grid comparison against the hybrid system is analyzed to answer which alternative is economical. Based on the resource, load, hybrid system size and component cost input data considered and running the simulation in HOMER gives optimization, sensitivity and grid comparison result. The optimization result of the simulation demonstrates that the top optimal hybrid system consists of solar PV, wind turbine, biogas generator, biodiesel generator, converter and battery under LF system control strategy. The initial capital cost for the best optimal hybrid system is $335,468, $303,199, $301,356 and $213,297, and the net present cost of the system is $837,915, $725,188, $703,213, $377,669 for Site-A, Site-B, Site-C and Site-D respectively. These costs give a levelized COE of $0.239, $0.237, $0.234 and $0.241 per kWh for Site-A, Site-B, Site-C and Site-D respectively. The model also includes a sensitivity analysis for 5 sensitivity input variables and 36 sensitivity cases. Based on the data obtained from universal electricity access program, the total capital cost of grid extension was estimated as $147,752, $104,724, $71,584, and $140,892 and the unit O&M cost in $/km/yr is 267; 349; 716 and 235 for Site-A, Site-B, Site-C and Site-D respectively. Keywords: Biogas digester, Break even distance, COE, Deferrable load, Green energy, Hybrid system, KOLEKTOR 2.2, Load forecast, Net present cost, Primary electrical loadenBiogas digesterBreak even distanceCOEDeferrable loadGreen energyHybrid systemLoad forecastNet present costPrimary electrical loadKolektor 2.2Thesis