Title: Optimum use of renewable energy resources to generate electricity via hybrid system

Authors: Mahmud Abdul Matin Bhuiyan; Anand Mandal

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Chittagong-4349, Bangladesh ' Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering, Kathmandu University, P.O. Box 6250, Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract: The necessity of hybrid energy system is gaining more importance day by day as it incorporates two or more than two renewable energy resources that when integrated overcome limitations inherent in either. Hybrid energy system has been seen as an excellent solution for electrification of rural place where the grid extension is difficult and economically not feasible. Such system may consist of several renewable resources such as solar PV, wind, biomass, micro-hydro, geothermal and other conventional generator for back-up where the deficiency of one system can be compensated by others. This paper depicts the different system components and their optimal combination for the efficient generation of electrical energy exploiting locally available resources. The model discussed in paper compromises of micro-hydro, solar PV and biomass for the rural village in Nepal known as Kalikhola which is used as a case study. The optimised hybrid system shows a unit cost of $0.088/KWh which is obtained after the simulation considering contribution of individual renewable resources participating in the system.

Keywords: renewable energy resources; hybrid systems; micro hydro; solar energy; solar power; PV; photovoltaics; biomass; electrification; electricity generation; rural areas; Nepal; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRET.2014.065373

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.299 - 309

Received: 13 May 2013
Accepted: 05 Nov 2013
Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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