Techno-Economic and Sensitivity Analysis of Standalone Hybrid Energy System Using HOMER Software: A Case Study of Kanur Village in India

This paper presents a techno-economic evaluation of an optimally designed isolated microgrid for a remote village ‘Kanur,’ Maharashtra, India. The microgrid is designed using HOMER consisting of a Solar Photovoltaic (PV), Wind turbine (WT), Diesel generator (DG), and Battery energy storage (BES). The optimal design is evaluated based on the net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE). Additionally, a sensitivity analysis is also presented for the variation of NPC and COE with the nominal discount rate (NDR) and inflation rates. The results show that the system can be operated with 0.0% capacity storage, i.e., the design offers sufficient generation to meet the load demand. The optimal configuration PV/WT/DG/BES/converter provides the lowest NPC 569,275 $ and COE 0.157 $/kWh among six other feasible configurations to meet the load demand. This configuration with DG provides the most economical COE and lowest excess energy generation at 28.6%. The sensitivity analysis shows that with change in NDR and expected inflation rate, NPC and COE significantly vary. It shows that it is difficult to evaluate the system performance of the isolated microgrid at the design state. However, a conservative choice of the NDR and inflation may seem optimal at the initial stage, but may lead to difficulties in the operational stages later. Thus, the selection of these parameters should be done after the sensitivity analysis.