Developing a Standardized Approach to Improve Solar Hybrid Minigrids in Nigeria

A large number of communities in rural areas without access to electricity from the grid rely on inefficient sources of power such as diesel generators, which present setbacks attributed to high pollution and have a high levelized cost of energy (LCOE) currently between US$ 0.35–0.70/kWh. Solar hybrid minigrids present a possible solution to this energy problem, however most current iterations fail to compete with diesel in terms of the LCOE, due to the actual grid operation not matching the theorized grid operation, mainly because of oversizing and improper dispatch of the system. We tackle this problem by presenting a report consisting of a performance analysis and optimization including an hour-by-hour grid model that calculates LCOE, a breakdown of LCOE and costs based on dispatch and sizing, and a comparison of actual dispatch vs optimized dispatch. From our optimized model and analysis we found a 22% reduction in LCOE from the original grid and 9% reduction in LCOE from the optimized base scenario. We conclude that novel approaches to the grid development process have a high potential to further drive reductions in LCOE of solar hybrid minigrids, thus making them a better and feasible alternative to diesel generators