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

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 1,120 kW 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 0.212 US$/kWh. The proposed system was comprised of 3 wind turbines each of 600 kW, 1000 kW of PV panels, and four diesel generating sets each of 1120 kW rated power. The system was able to meet the energy requirements (AC primary load of 17,043.4 MWh/y) of the village with 4.1% energy in excess. The annual contributions of wind, solar pv and the diesel generating sets were 4713.7, 1653.5, and 11,542.6 MWh, respectively. The proposed hybrid power system resulted in avoiding addition of 4976.8 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. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.