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Earlier most of the research groups have designed and developed hybrid renewable energy system models with technological, scientific and industrial advancement for the energy systems, but slight attention has been paid towards the grid-connected sustainable urban residential energy systems (SUR_eS) for metropolitan cities. The current research wishes to design, model and analyze grid-connected energy system for residential applications for sustainable urban residential energy system. The works aims to explore the potential of the augmented energy system for grid-connected energy system.

The proposed grid-connected SUR_eS are validated for a sample location at New Delhi (India) with a hybrid optimization model for electric renewable (HOMER) software to define and understand the various load profile. It presents the sensitivity analysis approach to validate the design of the proposed energy system.

The obtained results reports the key barriers, proposed model and scenarios for sustainable urban energy system development.

Similar approaches can be replicated to design and develop an independent, self-sustainable cleaner and environmental-friendly energy system in the future scenario for the extension of complex grid infrastructures.

It will assist the stakeholder in solving the complex urban sustainability issues raised due to the shortage of energy.

It will offer a clean and environment friendly sustainable energy resources with reduced carbon emissions. It will benefit sustainable energy resources with a mix of challenges and opportunities, to suggest an approach for implementation of efficient energy policies to optimize the existing and forthcoming energy systems.

The current research offers a design and model to analyze grid-connected energy system sustainable urban residential applications. It explores the potential of the augmented energy system. The proposed model are validated for a sample location with HOMER simulation software to define and understand various scenarios of the multiple load profile. The work presents the sensitivity analysis approach to validate the proposed energy system.

Rural areas are one of the effective regions in economy and self-sufficiency field especially in agricultural and livestock section. Planning in the rural section and the effort in solving the problems of farmers lead to increase their interest in farming and manufacturing in the villages and decrease their migration to the cities and metropolitans. Therefore, the present study aimed at feasibility of electricity to a rural household in Iran using off-grid solar-based hybrid system.

In renewable energy projects, a successful evaluation requires suitable criteria so that one can properly analyze the operational behavior of all feasible scenarios. In the present paper, HOMER software has been used for this purpose for a village with no access to electricity grid (Bar Aftab-e Jalaleh, Iran). Due to drastic fluctuation of fossil fuel prices and varied solar radiations in various years because of climate change, sensitivity analysis has been performed using HOMER.

In the optimum status economically, 70% of needed energy is provided by solar cells at the price 0.792 $/kWh. The comparison between the optimum condition economically and the condition that only use fossil fuels revealed that the return on investment will occur after less than 2 years and have remained profitable over 23 years.

The authors hope that the results of this study can be used in planning of the authorities to realize the interests of people in this village.

According to the surveys, despite Iran being the first country in terms of providing solar power to the villages, so far no socio-economic-environmental assessment has been done for a solar cell-based micro-grid in an off-grid mode for a remote village that is deprived of electricity from a national electricity grid. In addition, for the first time in Iran, the effect of the fuel price and solar radiation parameters variability on the performance of system have been investigated.

This paper aims to investigate the techno-economic feasibility of wind power potential for a tribal region located in Gachsaran in the South-West of Iran.

Techno-economic feasibility study and analysis of data were conducted by HOMER v2.68 software. Simulations and calculations were performed for 10 kW turbines, 8 Trojan L16P batteries, 12 kW converter and 12 kW generator. To anticipate the pay back period (PBP) or the time required to reach profitability, an engineering economic method named net equivalent uniform annual was applied.

The power plant construction cost, including the initial cost, installing, replacing and project operating costs for useful life of 20 years was equal to $40970. The net income of the project for each year was $8538 and the calculations were carried out using interest rate of 18%. Results indicated that PBP was 13 years which is lower than 20 years useful life of the turbine. Therefore, it is economically feasible to use this type of turbine for the nominated region.

There has not been conducted a research regarding remote areas in Iran; therefore, this study aims at closing this research gap. Moreover, this method could be used for any remote areas in any other developing country.

Every day, the sun provides by far more energy than the amount necessary to meet the whole world’s energy demand. Solar energy, unlike fossil fuels, does not suffer from depleting resource and also releases no greenhouse gas emissions when being used. Hence, using solar irradiance to produce electricity via photovoltaic (PV) systems has significant benefits which can lead to a sustainable and clean future. In this regard, the purpose of this study is first to assess the technical and economic viability of solar power generation sites in the capitals of the states of Canada. Then, a novel integrated technique is developed to prioritize all the alternatives.

In this study, ten provinces in Canada are evaluated for the construction of solar power plants. The new hybrid approach composed of data envelopment analysis (DEA), balanced scorecard (BSC) and game theory (GT) is implemented to rank the nominated locations from techno-economic-environmental efficiency aspects. The input data are obtained using HOMER software.

Applying the proposed hybrid approach, the order of high to low efficiency locations was found as Winnipeg, Victoria, Edmonton, Quebec, Halifax, St John’s, Ottawa, Regina, Charlottetown and Toronto. Construction of ten solar plants in the ten studied locations was assessed and it was ascertained that usage of solar energy in Winnipeg, Victoria and Edmonton would be economically and environmentally justified.

As to novelty, it should be clarified that the authors propose an effective hybrid method combining DEA, BSC and GT for prioritizing all available scenarios concerned with the construction of a solar power plant.

This paper aims to propose a comprehensive methodology for setting up rural electrifications for indigenous villages with minimum budgets and the lowest possible cost of electricity (COE). The electricity accessibility of rural area in Malaysia is not fully covered and the cost of extending the grid to these areas can be high as RM 2.7m per km. Lack of vigorous policies and economic attraction of the rural areas are also the main barriers to rural electrification. Electricity is an essential element of economic activities and the lack of electricity exacerbates poverty and contributes to its perpetuation. Therefore, a hybrid standalone power system can be an alternative solution for the rural electrification. A hybrid standalone power system is studied to investigate the potential of the implementation and the budget required.

A site survey has been carried out in a village in Peninsular Malaysia, namely, Kampung Ulu Lawin Selatan. A standalone hybrid system is modeled in HOMER Pro software and the data collected from the selected site are used to obtain the system configuration with the lowest COE. The load following and cycle charging energy dispatch methods are compared to identify the optimal system configuration that yields the lowest COE. The diesel generator-only system is chosen as a benchmark for comparisons.

The results show that the hybrid system constituted from the diesel generator, photovoltaic (PV), micro-hydro and energy storage using the load following energy dispatch method yields the lowest COE of RM 0.519 per kWh. The COE of the hybrid system is 378 per cent lower than that of the diesel generator-only system. The lead-acid energy storage system (ESS) is able to reduce 40 per cent of COE as compared to the system without ESS.

The results indicate that the COE of the diesel-micro hydro-PV-ESS system with load following dispatch strategy is RM 0.519 per kWh, and this value is 35 per cent higher than the average electricity price in Malaysia. However, it is important to note that the costs of extending the grid to the rural area are not taken into account. If this cost is considered into the electricity price, then the standalone hybrid power system proposed by this study is still a competitive alternative for rural electrification.

This study aims to analyze the effects of variations in annual real interest rates in the assessment of the techno-economic feasibility of a hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for an off-grid community.

Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software is used to propose an HRES for Abadam community in northern Nigeria. The HRES was designed to meet the basic needs of the community over a 25-year project lifespan. Based on the available energy resources in the community, photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine, diesel generator and battery were suggested for integration to serve the load requirements.

When the annual real interest rates were taken as 10 and 8 per cent, the total amount of total energy fraction from PV, wind turbine and the diesel generator is 28, 57 and 15 per cent, respectively. At these interest rates, wind turbines contributed more energy across all months than other energy resources. The energy resource distribution for 0, 2,4 and 6 per cent annual real interest rates have a similar pattern, but PV contributed a majority of the energy.

This study has used annual real interest and inflation rates dynamic behavior to determine optimal HRES for remote communities. Hence, its analysis will equip decision-makers with the necessary information for accurate planning.

The results of this study can be used to plan and design HRES infrastructure for off-grid communities around the world.

This paper aims to focus on technical and economical analysis of small scale wind/solar hybrid system for domestic consumers. The analysis is carried out on HOMER II simulation software. Pakistan is one of those developing countries which are encountered with severe energy crises. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a technically and economically feasible system to meet the domestic consumer’s demand, as well as contribute to the central grid. HOMER Energy software is used to analyze different systems and to obtain the most reliable and feasible system for the customer. Simulation was carried out to find an economically and technically feasible system. Sensitivity analysis was carried out with hub height, PV De-rating factor, PV life, Wind turbine life. Change in hub height drastically affected energy production and economic prospect as the main factors of the system. Implementing such type of small hybrid systems on domestic level can be truly helpful to overcome energy shortage.

The application of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) can mitigate inadequate access to clean, stable and sustainable energy among households in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Available studies on HRES seem to concentrate only on its techno-economic and environmental viability. In so doing, these studies do not seem to underline the likely challenges that follow the acquisition of HRES by especially low-income households. The ensuing reality is, of course, a limitation in the use of HRES in homes with low incomes. It is therefore imperative to analyze how a household with low income can afford this kind of energy system. The purpose of this study, therefore, lies in presenting a techno-economic, environmental and affordability analysis of how HRES is acquired.

To arrive at a grounded analysis, a typical household in SSA is used as an example. The analysis focused on the pattern of energy use, and this is obtained by visiting an active site to evaluate the comprehensive load profile. In the course of analysis, an optimal techno-economic design and sizing of a hybrid PV, wind and battery were undertaken. Additionally, an acquisition analysis was done based on loan amortization.

The interesting result is that a combination of the photovoltaic-gasoline-battery system is the most cost-effective energy system with a net present cost of $2,682. The system combination can lead to an emission reduction of approximately 98.3 per cent, compared to the use of gasoline generating sets, common mostly in SSA. If an amortized loan is used to purchase the energy system, and the payment plan is varied such that the frequency of payments is made quarterly, annually, semi-annually, bi-monthly, semi-monthly and bi-weekly, it will be observed that low-income household can conveniently acquire a HRES.

The result presented a framework by which a low-income household can purchase and install HRES. To facilitate this, it is recommended that low-income households should be given interest-friendly loans, so as to enhance the acquisition of HRES.

This research studies the impact of introducing distributed generators (DGs) into a distribution network. The aim of this paper is to optimally site DGs based on economic, environmental and reliability indices are presented.

The considered network was modelled by using the network’s line parameters and capacity of the load bus with the help of Power System Analysis Toolbox. The location of the DG is based on voltage stability index and power loss reduction index. The DG energy sources considered are the diesel generator, solar photo-voltaic (PV) and wind generator, and the objectives were to minimize cumulative cost while maximizing reliability of the network. The Advanced Interactive Multidimensional Modelling System was used for the mathematical modelling.

The obtained results in the cases of introducing renewable energy into a network improves network performance. The benefits of renewable energy on the distribution network measured in terms of electricity production cost, gas emission cost, fuel cost and value of energy not supplied were positive. The research also showed that the total benefit of renewable energy reduces as the price of the renewable generators increases.

This paper introduces a new approach to determining the optimal location of DG for reducing line losses and improved voltage profile. A new cost modelling function based on external grid power transfer cost, technical losses and cost because of the various energies source is also introduced.

The purpose of this paper is to show the effect of randomness of wind speed on the capacity value estimation of wind power. Three methods that incorporate hourly wind speed have been evaluated.

Wind speed is simulated using autoregressive moving average method and is included in the calculation of reliability index as a negative load on an hourly basis. The reliability index is calculated before and after the addition of wind capacity. Increment of load or alteration of conventional capacity will lead to capacity estimation.

Among the aforementioned three methods, the former two exclude the availability rate and give the exact value for wind capacity addition. The third method is based on the availability rate and provides a little higher capacity value, indicating a clear correlation between availability and capacity value.

The methods that exclude the availability rate show consistent results. By including the availability rate, the third method predicts the inverse relation between the availability rate and the capacity value.