Modeling and Simulation of an Off-Grid Hybrid Microgrid System: A Case Study of a Kavalur Rural Social Community

In recent days, a spotlight has been thrown on microgrids as there has been more evolution of software systems, increasing customers’ thirst for sustainability, reliability, and cost predictability. For these reasons, there is a need for development of microgrids in remote areas. In this article, a hybrid microgrid system for a remote locality in the southern part of India, specifically Kavalur, Tamil Nadu, is presented. The primary objective is to perform sizing and cost optimization of the designed system. In order to design this system, commercial software named “HOMER Pro” was used to obtain the optimum solutions. The hybrid system consisted of a wind generator (WG), a solar photovoltaic (PV) array, a diesel generator (DG) system, and a battery storage system to fulfill the load requirements of the particular area. The sensitivity analysis was also carried out by considering different PV derated output powers at two different hub heights. It was found that the design consisting of a PV array, a wind turbine, a DG set, and a lead acid battery gave better optimum results, with a total net present cost (NPC) of US${\$}$340,287 with a PV derating of 80% and a hub height of 50 m. The cost of energy (CoE) was estimated as US${\$}$0.247 per unit.