Comparative Study of Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic - Diesel Power Supply System

Abstract

In an environment with unstable power supply, incessant load shedding and inconsistent energy availability remains a major challenge. Hence, there is a need for an urgent alternative source of energy to mitigate this challenge.  Over the years, fossil fuel-based energy sources have been considered as an effective solution, however the greenhouse gases emissions from these sources contribute largely to the rise in the depletion of the ozone layer which eventually leads to pollution and global warming. This work contributes to efforts in curbing this menace by reducing the use of diesel generators and focus more on a hybrid renewable energy system. This study, used selected residential buildings as a case study. A photovoltaic system and a diesel generator were incorporated as hybrid energy system, and the data gathered was processed using the HOMER software. The output of the simulation provided two optimal systems (PV-Diesel Generator, Battery coupled with the complete Hybrid system) and (PV- Diesel generator). The optimal and cost-effective system from the analysis is the PV-diesel hybrid system. This consists of a 10kW solar PV, 45kW Diesel generator, a 10kW converter and six 6FM200D batteries. This study provides a synergy of individual subsystems as analyzed in the result to enhanced the reliability of the system.