Optimal Sizing and Assessment of an Islanded Photovoltaic-Battery-Diesel Generator Microgrid Applicable to a Remote School of Bangladesh

Electricity has become a part and parcel of modern life. The world is constantly developing, and the electricity demand is inevitably increasing with it. It is a big challenge for the power generation organizations to cope up with this increasing demand. For a developing country like Bangladesh, this challenge is even bigger. Bangladesh has many remote areas which are deprived of grid connectivity. In this article, system design and performance evaluation are conducted on a solar battery-based hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) with diesel backup for a school in a remote area located in the northern part of the country, where conventional power grid connectivity is not available. From field survey, a load demand of 10.468 kWh/day for a normal working day and a peak demand of 3.3 kW are considered in this work for the proposed site. For simulation purpose hybrid optimization model for electric renewable, very well-known software is used. The solar radiation data required for the work are collected from NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy database. Analyzing the load requirements and metrological data a solar-battery diesel generator-based HRES is proposed for the school. From the analysis and simulation, the Net Present Cost (NPC) for the proposed system is found USD 6191 with a Cost of Energy (COE) of $0.125/kWh. Further, a comparative study is done and the proposed system can reduce the COE and Green House Gas (GHG) emission of about 29.85% and 69% respectively than the conventional power plants. Finally, a techno-economic analysis is conducted with sensitivity analysis, time series analysis, and multiyear analysis to prove the rigidity of the proposed system.