Economic and environmental analysis of micro hydropower system for rural power supply

Author

Kusakana, K. ; Munda, J.L. ; Jimoh, AA

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Tshwane Univ. of Technol., Pretoria

fYear

2008

fDate

1-3 Dec. 2008

Firstpage

441

Lastpage

444

Abstract

This paper discusses the advantages of using renewable energy sources in the architecture of an off-grid hybrid power system in rural areas. The studied system is composed of a diesel generator to which a micro hydropower plant is added. Simulations using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) are performed for given annual values of hydro resources, power demands and hybrid system component costs. The results highlight the cost-effectiveness character and the reduction of gas pollutant emissions achieved by using such a system rather than a diesel generator to supply the same load.

Keywords

environmental factors; hydroelectric power; HOMER; diesel generator; economic analysis; environmental analysis; environmental impacts; gas pollutant emissions; hybrid optimization model for electric renewable; hybrid system component costs; hydro resources; microhydropower plant; microhydropower system; off-grid hybrid power system; power demands; renewable energy sources; rural areas; rural power supply; Environmental economics; Hybrid power systems; Hydroelectric power generation; Power demand; Power generation economics; Power supplies; Power system economics; Power system modeling; Power system simulation; Renewable energy resources; Costeffectiveness; Environmental Impacts; Hybrid power system; Micro hydropower; Rural power supply;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power and Energy Conference, 2008. PECon 2008. IEEE 2nd International

Conference_Location

Johor Bahru

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2404-7

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2405-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PECON.2008.4762516

Filename

4762516