Feasibility study of a wind-pv-diesel hybrid power system for a village

Abstract

A wind-pv-diesel hybrid power system has been designed for a village in Saudi Arabia which is presently powered by a diesel power plant consisting of eight diesel generating sets of 1,120kW each. The study found a wind-pv-diesel hybrid power system with 35% renewable energy penetration (26% wind and 9% solar PV) to be the feasible system with cost of energy of 0.212US$/kWh. The proposed system was comprised of 3 wind turbines each of 600kW, 1000kW of PV panels, and four diesel generating sets each of 1120kW rated power. The system was able to meet the energy requirements (AC primary load of 17,043.4MWh/y) of the village with 4.1% energy in excess. The annual contributions of wind, solar pv and the diesel generating sets were 4,713.7, 1,653.5, and 11,542.6MWh, respectively. The proposed hybrid power system resulted in avoiding addition of 4,976.8 tons of GHG equivalent of CO2 gas in to the local atmosphere of the village and conservation of 10,824 barrels of fossil fuel annually.