Design of Optimum Sizing for Hybrid Renewable Energy System using HOMER Pro to Meet the Identical Load Demand at Selected Indian Cities

Abstract

Hybrid renewable energy system (HRES)comprises of various renewable power sources such as solar photovoltaic, wind, bio-generator etc. Though solar-wind combination plays a major role, its hybrid system including bio-generator would be the best option for off-setting the natural limitations of individual renewable energy sources concerned. The potential of available solar irradiance, temperature and wind speed changes with the change in geographical locations. It is obvious that similar ratings of HRES will not be suitable for all the locations and hence there is a need to determine the viable combinations, optimum sizing and carrying out the cost analysis of HRES before its procurement and installation so that a minimum net present cost (NPC) of the HRES can be achieved. In this design simulation study, a HRES system was modeled using HOMER Pro(open-source version) to meet the identical or same power load and energy demand of a user located at the sample city Chennai (Capital city of Tamilnadu). Data on maximum peak demand, an average daily based annual load demand and the total annual energy demand of the user selected at Chennai was obtained from online energy monitoring system for a period of one year. The same electrical load and energy demand pattern was used in Homer Pro for designing optimum sizing of HRES for other 37 users located in different parts of India. It has been found from the Homer Pro simulation that in the optimum sized HRES consisting of solar, wind and bio-generator; all are not generating maximum power in same location. The optimization results also shows that the most feasible HRES system designed with an aim of getting minimum NPC, consisting of Solar PV, Wind Turbine and Bio-generator was i) 109, 1.0, 12kW for Imphal, generating 95% energy by Solar PV ii) 60.6, 14, 10kW for Kargil, generating 17.8% energy by Wind and iii) 68.9, 6, 20kW for Srinagar, generating 7.27% energy by biogas generator. Based on this study, it can be decided that different regions in India requires different capacity of HRES to fulfill identical electrical energy demand.