Homer based Techno-Economic Comparison of Solar PV, Micro Hydro and Biomass Renewable Energy System with and without Battery Storage

Almost all developing countries are facing severe energy crisis, which is affecting their economy from several years. Most of remote areas have no access or limited access to grid, while grid extension is expensive and time consuming option. Generation from renewable sources at load center is a viable option, but huge investment and intermittency are the main constraints in implementing renewable base projects. By integrating different renewables can minimize cost and enhance reliability of distributed renewable systems. This paper mainly emphasizes on the optimization of hybrid renewable power systems having solar PV, biomass and micro-hydro with and without energy storage for a village in district Mardan, KP, Pakistan using Homer. Solar irradiance data is taken from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), hydro resource data from local irrigation department and biomass resource data from world bank biomass atlas. We have performed the techno-economic analysis of two different hybrid renewable power systems with unidirectional and bidirectional three phase converters. We have compared net present cost (NPC) and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of two models which justifies that system consist of PV, micro-hydro and biomass with battery storage is more economical and reliable