ANALYSING THE OPERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENT OF A HYBRID PV MINI-
GRID
1. OVERVIEW
Electrical energy is useful in all manufacturing, telecommunications,
residential, agricultural, medical and commercial activities. Electrical energy can be derived from various sources which include hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, and thermal sources [1]. Since some of the commuties in Namibia are hundreds of kilometers away from nearest electrical grid which makes unviable for the extension of the network from those grids. Hence the need has raised for government in cooperation with relevant stakeholders to implement hybrid mini-grid for such communities. Since Namibia has good record of solar radiation, solar energy/diesel generator hybrid mini-grid was designed for such communities. Some of the hybrid mini-grids in Namibia are: Tsunkwe, Gobabeb and Usib Primary school solar PV/diesel hybrid mini grid [2]. The studies have shown that solar PV hybrid mini-grid connected system is economically viable for rural electrification for isolated, small and remote communities where the national grid has to be extended distances beyond 20km. Furthermore, PV mini-grid systems can be integrated into the national grid, when those communities are connected to the national grid in future [1].
A hybrid mini-grid is composed of three subsystems: the production, the
distribution, and demand subsystems. Each subsystem can vary greatly in its components and architecture according to the availability of resources, desired services to provide, and user characteristics. Production subsystem includes the generation, storage, converters and energy management systems components. The production subsystem determines the capacity of the hybrid system to provide electricity, and connects all the components through the bus bar (i.e. the electrical wiring connecting the different components together) at the required voltage for the distribution subsystem [3]. While distribution subsystem is in charge of distributing the produced electricity to the users by means of the mini-grid. The primary issues are whether to use a distribution mini-grid based on DC or AC, and whether to build a single phase or three-phase grid. This decision will have an impact on the cost of the project and will mainly determinate the devices which can be used. Demand subsystem includes all the equipment on the end-user side of the system, such as meters, internal wiring, grounding, and the devices which will use the electricity generated by the hybrid power plant [4].
Hybrid Optimisation of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software is a well-
known for designing, modelling, simulation and the sizing of the hybrid systems and its individual technical components. It is also used for economic and financial analysis of the hybrid.