International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)

ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426

Optimal Sizing of Grid Connected PV/Wind Hybrid

System Using Homer Software
Abiy Mekonnen
Addis Abeba Science and Technology University, Ethiopia

Abstract: The renewable energy sources have increased significantly due to environmental issues and fossil fuels elevated cost.
Integration of renewable energy sources to utility grid depends on the scale of power generation. Large scale power generations are
connected to transmission systems whereas small scale distributed power generation are connected to distribution systems.
Conventionally a battery bank is used as the backup system in standalone Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES) while in grid-
connected systems the grid performs as the backup during power shortage periods. For the latter, different prices of electricity during
peak and off-peak hours raises a question about the cost effectiveness of using the grid as a backup this paper focuses on the design of
an optimized grid connected small-scale HRES, The performance of the proposed design method is evaluated based on a case study for a
typical Village in Ethiopia.

Keywords: Wind energy, solar energy grid-connected hybrid systems

1. Introduction Geothermal MW 7000 <1%

Wood Million tones 1120 50%
Ethiopia has a lot of small hydropower, solar and wind Agriculture Waste Million tones 15-20 30%
Natural gas Billion m3 113 0%
energy potentials convenient for rural electrification. It is
Coal Million tones 300 0%
conceivable that a hybrid system has the advantage of
Oil share Million tones 253 0%
improved reliability and therefore gives better energy
service when compared to any particular (wind, solar, etc.)
Renewable energy resources like solar and wind offer clean
type of stand-alone supply system. What this means is that
and economically competitive alternatives to conventional
in the absence of one type of energy (example: solar energy
power generation where high wind speed and high solar
during nighttime) another could be available (example:
radiation are available. For meeting the energy demand, PV
wind) to carry out the service. Hence, hybrid systems are
wind hybrid power generating systems can be beneficial in
found to be more appropriate than single stand-alone
enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of
resources. Conventionally the balance between demand and
renewable energy systems. Hybrid power systems are
HRES is obtained by grid in grid-connected systems and
designed for the generation of electrical power using number
overproduction is sent into the grid. In these systems, the
of power generation devices such as wind turbine, PV, micro
grid performs as the storage system with infinite capacity
hydro and/or other conventional generators. In addition, it
which makes the HRES reliable at any time. However
includes power electronics and electricity storage bank.
different grid electricity prices in peak and off-peak hours
Some of the advantages of using RESs are gain an
could become an economical challenge in maintaining
immediate access to reliable electricity at any time; reduce
power shortage in peak hours from the grid. The generated
the dependency from oil price fluctuations and the
power by wind turbine and PV arrays are depended on many
transportation costs of fuels; increase economic productivity
parameters that the most effectual of them are wind speed,
and fight climate change.
the height of WTs hub (that affects the wind speed), solar
radiations and orientation of PV panels. In certain region,
1.2 Importance of the Hybrid System
the optimization variables are considered as the number of
WTs, number of PV arrays, and installation angle of PV
Hybrid power supply systems consist of different energy
arrays, number of storage batteries, height of the hub and
sources in order to have more secured supply of electrical
sizes of DC/AC converter. goal of this work is optimal
loads with increased reliability and durability of the system.
design of hybrid system for the one village in southern part
The hybrid systems take advantage of the strengths of the
of Ethiopia. The data of hourly wind speed, hourly vertical
subsystems to overcome the weaknesses of the individual
and horizontal solar radiation and load during a year are
systems. The features of the hybrid systems are mainly more
taken from some secondary data centers.
reliable and less expensive than the conventional systems,
because the solar sources are available during the day while
1.1 Current status of energy Development in Ethiopia
the wind energy is 24 hours a day. It should be noted that
wind and solar energy sources are practically free after the
Table 1: Indigenous energy resources in Ethiopia (Report on
installation of their infrastructure. An efficient management
Ethiopian Energy Sector [1])
or control system can determine the power flow to the loads
Exploitable Exploitable
Resource Unit from various components of the hybrid system during the
reserve percent
Hydro power MW 45000 <5% period of operation. Note that in a hybrid system, the
Solar /day KW/m2 Av 5.5 <1% individual power sources are operating like a team
Wind power : GW 1350 supporting each other in a highly reliable manner. It is
<1% obvious that when the energy is drawn from the solar
Speed m/s > 6.5m/s
Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 482
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426
subsystem, the other subsystems can be viewed as standby periodicity separated by the rift valley. In the first of these,
systems. covering most of the highland plateaus, there are two well-
defined wind speed maximal occurring, respectively,
1.3 Components the Hybrid System between March and May and between September and
November. In the second zone, covering most of the Ogaden
A typical hybrid power generation system consists of and the eastern lowlands, average wind velocity reaches
various components as shown in Figure 1. The components maximum values between May and August [ 7, 9, 10, 11,
can be summarized and described as follows 13]. Currently two projects are being constructed, one
Ashegoda wind park (near Mekele) of 120MW and the other
Adama Wind Parks of nearlyAdama51MW and 153MW

3. System Modeling
The proposed possible modeling is used to design a grid
connected HRES for a village in Ethiopia. Inputs of the
design are load profiles and hourly average of wind speed
and solar irradiance data for12 months of the year as a case
study.

3.1 Load Estimation

Electric load in the rural villages of Ethiopia can be assumed

Figure 1: Concept diagram of PV/Wind hybrid system to be composed of lighting, radio and television, water
connected with grid pumps, health post and primary schools load. In this study,
electricity for cooking and for flour mills is added to the
2. Solar and Wind Energy resource in Ethiopia load together with home radio and a TV set. Water pumps
are considered as deferrable loads while the others as
Ethiopia receives 4.55 to 6.5 kWh/m2/day annual average of primary loads. There are about 5,166 people without
solar insolation throughout the country [1 - 6, 10]. This electricity now or even in the near future in this village.
varies significantly during the year, ranging from a Assuming an average of 6 members in a family, there would
minimum of 4.55 kWh/m2 in July to a maximum of 6.55 be a total of 861 household. Assuming one elementary
kWh/m2 in February and March. Other literatures describe school and one health center per 320 families, a total of 3
the yearly average radiation to be in the range from 4.25 primary schools and 3 health centers are required for the
kWh/m2 in the areas of Itang in the Glabella regional state community.
(western Ethiopia), to 6.25 kWh/m2 around Adigrat in the Table 2: Load profile of home appliance
Tigray regional state (northern Ethiopia) [8,9].Wind energy Appliance Power No Time(h) Energy (Wh/day)
is another potential source of renewable energy. Winds are CFL 15 4 4 240
the motion of air caused by uneven heating of the earth’s TV 60 1 4 240
surface by the sun and rotation of the earth. It generates due Refrigerator 80 1 8 640
to various global phenomena such as air-temperature Mitad 800 0.285 228.5
difference associated with different rates of solar heating. recorders 20 1 4 80
Since the earth’s surface is made up of land, desert, water, chargers 10 2 1 20
and forest areas, the surface absorbs the sun’s radiation Others 50 2 1 100
Total Energy 1548.5
differently. Locally, the strong winds are created by sharp
temperature difference between the land and the sea [7,
10].Ethiopia has exploitable reserve of 1350 GW wind The total primary and deferrable load of the village is
energy with an average speed of 5.5 m/s, flowing for 6 summarized in table below
hours/day. There are two basic zones with homogenous

Table 3: Summary of load on village

Load Type Demand (kWh/day)
Category Jan-May June Jul & Aug Sep Oct-Dec
Deferrable 25 23 20 28 28
Primary Household 1047.48 1047.48 1047.48 1047.48 1047.48
Health Posts 16 16 16 16 16
Primary Schools 18 18 18 18 18
Mills 27 27 27 27 27
Total 1133.48 1131.48 1128.48 1136.48 1136.48

3.2 PV System Design

3.2.1 Solar resources of the area

Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 483
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426
Table 4: Solar data from NASA
Month Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju Jul Au Se Oc No D Av.
Clearness Index 0.601 0.653 0.661 0.649 0.66 0.59 0.58 0.62 0.59 0.59 0.58 0.66 0.62
Daily solar radiation (KWh/m2/d) 6.050 6.780 6.950 6.620 6.34 5.50 5.43 6.11 6.09 6.09 5.82 6.49 6.2

3.2.2 PV generator sizing Cpis the wind turbine power coefficient

The peak power (Wp) of the PV generator ( PPV) is obtained AWT is the rotor disk area in m2 and
from the following equation. [11] Vis hourly average wind velocity in m s at the hub elevation.

The performance of the whole system is then simulated with

Where the equations of 2.4 and 2.5
EL is energy consumption per day = 1136,48KWh/day
PSH is the peak sun hours. 6.2
ηR is efficiency of charge regulator = 0.92 (2.4) if total power generated by wind turbine and PV is
ηV is efficiency of inverter = 0.9 sufficient to cover the load demand otherwise
Sf is the safety factor, for compensation of resistive and PV- (2.5) where PWTand PPVis not sufficient during off-peak
cell temperature hours
Losses = 1.15,
PPV = 296KWP 4. Simulation result and Discussion using
Homer Software
To obtain this peak value, we select to install
multicrystalline-36 rectangular cells module type KC 130 The main objective of the overall work is to propose the
GHT-2 of a 0.929 m² area, rated at 12 VDC , and Pmpp = 130 optimal combination of wind and PV together with grid
W. The number of necessary PV modules ( PVNo. ) is systems in a form of a hybrid system, which will improve
obtained as the system reliability and investment costs. HOMER
simulates all the possible system configurations based on the
combinations of the components specified to it as input data
and discards the infeasible system configurations that do not
3.3 Wind Turbine System Design adequately meet the suggested load with the available
resource and/or specified constraints. Hence, only feasible
3.3.1 Wind resource data combinations are displayed according to the total net present
cost (NPC) in an increasing order. The optimization results
Table 5: Wind data at 70m height are given out in an overall form and in a categorized form.
Month Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju Jul Au Se Oc No De Av. For a particular set of sensitivity variables (solar radiation,
Speed average wind speed, diesel price, etc.), the overall table
at 70 m 8 9.5 10 11 8 8 9 11 9 8 8 8 8.95 displays all feasible system configurations according to cost
(m/s) effectiveness. The categorized table displays only the most
cost effective configuration from each possible hybrid
3.3.2 Wind Turbine Size Design system types.
The wind power generated by a wind turbine can be
obtained by: 4.1 Inputs data to the Homer

1) Monthly solar radiation

The graphical data shown below is the monthly solar
Where:-
radiation data for this specific area
PWTis wind turbine power in W.
1.225kg /m3 is the air density.
Global Hor izontal Radiation
7 1.0

6
Daily Radiation (kWh/m²/d)

0.8
5
Clearness Index

0.6
4

3
0.4

2
0.2
1

0 0.0
Jan Feb M ar Apr M ay Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Dai l y Radi ati on Cl earness Index
Figure 2: Monthly solar radiation data

2) Monthly wind speed

The graphical data shown below is monthly wind data for
selected area at 70m height

Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 484
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426

Figure 3: Graphical representation of wind resources

3) Primary load
The following data is the primary load input to the homer
Figure 6: Power curve for FL100 wind turbine

6) Grid Electric Price in Ethiopia

Table 7: Grid price of Ethiopia

Off Peak Price Peak Price
Grid
BIRR/KWh BIRR/KWh
First 900KWh 0.3933 0.5085
Consumption after first 900KWh 0.58995 0.76275
Selling electricity to grid (birr/Kwh)

Figure 4: Daily primary load profile 4.2 Result and discussions

4) Deferrable load The results are displayed in an increasing order of the total
net present cost (NPC). A given system type may have many
different configurations based on the size combination of
constituent elements. The categorized table displays only the
most cost effective configuration from each system type.
The overall optimization table displays all feasible system
configurations (for any possible system type) ranked in their
cost effectiveness. From the details of the optimization
analysis the following can be observed: size of different
components in each system, electric production of each
Figure 5: Daily deferrable load profile component, capital, replacement and operating and
maintenance cost of each system, annualized cost, excess
5) Selected wind turbine and shortage of capacity, cost of energy (COE), renewable
FL100 wind turbine is selected fraction, unmet load, amount of emission for each of
greenhouse gas, consumption of diesel, operating hour and
Table 6: Characteristics FL 100 wind turbine number of starting of diesel generator, life time of generator
POWER ROTOR
and battery, throughput of battery and fuel cost. Renewable
Rated power: 100.0 kW
Cut-in wind speed: 2.5 m/s Diameter: 21.0 m
fraction cost of energy (COE), unmet load and total NPC
Rated wind speed: 13.0 m/s Swept area: 346.0 m² values can be used as a parameter of selecting a given
Cut-out wind speed: 25.0 m/s Number of blades: 3 configuration among the many candidates.
Survival wind speed: 67.0 m/s Rotor speed, max: 46.0 U/min
Rated power: 100.0 kW Tip speed: 51 m/s a) First scenario with 500KW purchase capacity of the
grid with Small Cost of energy
(Less renewable penetration)
Within this scenario the following optimization result is
obtained. The graph shown below cash flow summary of the
first Scenario

Figure 7: Cash flow summary for the least optimal value

Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 485
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426
According to this result large amount of cost is wind and ii) Production from Wind turbine
grid purchased cost because most the capacity is covered by
grid and Wind turbine. Total Electrical productionof this Table 11: Electrical production from Wind Turbine
scenario described below Quantity Value Units Quantity Value
Total rated Minimum
1,000 kW 0 kW
Table 9: Total electrical production of the system and capacity output
percentage share Maximum
Mean output 502 kW 1,250 kW
Production KWh/day % output
PV array 1,702 0 Wind
Capacity factor 50.2 % 1,062 %
Wind turbines 4,399,120 99 penetration
Grid purchases 59,503 1 Total Hours of
4,399,150 kWh/yr 8,395 hr/yr
production operation
Total 4,460,325 100
Levelized cost 0.0238 $/kWh
i) Production from PV
iii) Production from grid
Table 10: Electrical production from PV
Quantity Value Units Quantity Value
Rated capacity 1.00 kW Minimum output 0.00 kW
Mean output 0.19 kW Maximum output 0.88 kW
Mean output 4.66 kWh/d PV penetration 0.411 %
Capacity factor 19.4 % Hours of operation 4,380 hr/yr

Table 12: Electrical production from grid

Month Energy purchased Energy sold Net purchase Peak demand Energy Charge Demand
(KWh) (KWh) (KWh) (KW) ($) Charge ($)
January 6,082 191,673 -185,591 91 -9,280 297
February 3,344 210,366 -207,021 71 -10,351 353
March 4,022 242,753 -238,731 73 -11,937 365
April 3,122 252,212 -249,090 67 -12,455 246
May 5,827 191,541 -185,714 91 -9,286 314
June 6,199 185,341 -179,142 84 -8,957 282
July 4,558 220,267 -215,708 72 -10,785 275
August 3,933 260,418 -256,485 81 -12,824 392
September 5,111 213,065 -207,955 71 -10,398 298
October 5,746 190,939 -185,193 67 -9,260 325
November 5,581 185,237 -179,655 85 -8,983 268
December 5,977 190,921 -184,944 83 -9,247 381
Annual 59,503 2,534,733 -2,475,230 91 -123,762 3,796

Figure 8: Graph data of monthly electric production

b) 2nd scenario with 500KW purchase capacity of the grid with increase Cost of energy (High renewable penetration)
Within this scenario the following optimization result is obtained .The graph shown below cash flow summary of the first
Scenario

Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 486
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426

Figure 9: Cash flow summary for this scenario

According to this result large amount of cost is wind and Table 13: Electrical productions this scenario
grid purchased cost because most the capacity is covered by Production KWh %
grid and Wind turbine. PV array 170,201 4
Wind turbines 4,399,120 95
Grid purchases 47,656 1
Total 4,616,977 100

i) Production from PV

Table 14: Electrical production from PV

Quantity Value Unit Quantity Value Unit
Rated capacity 100 kW Minimum output 0.00 kW
Mean output 19.4 kW Maximum output 87.6 kW
Mean output 466 kWh/d PV penetration 41.1 %
Capacity factor 19.4 % Hours of operation 4,380 hr/yr

ii) Production from Wind turbine

Table 15: Electrical production from Wind Turbine

Quantity Value Units Quantity Value Units
Total rated capacity 1,000 kW Minimum output 0 kW
Mean output 502 kW Maximum output 1,250 kW
Capacity factor 50.2 % Wind penetration 1,062 %
Total production 4,399,150 kWh/yr Hours of operation 8,395 hr/yr
Levelized cost 0.0238 $/kWh

iii) Production from grid

Table 16: Electrical production from PV

Month Energy purchased Energy sold Net purchase Peak demand Energy Charge Demand Charge
(KWh) (KWh) (KWh) (KW) ($) ($)
January 5,254 196,409 -191,155 91 -9,558 297
February 2,752 214,176 -211,424 71 -10,571 353
March 3,151 246,408 -243,256 73 -12,163 365
April 2,481 254,696 -252,216 67 -12,611 246
May 4,489 197,375 -192,887 73 -9,644 314
June 4,682 191,220 -186,538 73 -9,327 282
July 3,652 223,870 -220,218 72 -11,011 275
August 3,400 262,246 -258,846 78 -12,942 392
September 4,224 216,150 -211,926 71 -10,596 298
October 4,581 195,915 -191,335 66 -9,567 325
November 4,616 189,388 -184,772 85 -9,239 268
December 4,478 196,764 -192,286 76 -9,614 381
Annual 47,760 2,584,619 -2,536,859 91 -126,843 3,796

Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 487
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426

Figure 10: Graph data of monthly electric production

5. Conclusion http://www.arcfinance.org/pdfs/news/EthiopiaPaper20
09.pdf
In this sample study of Grid connected PV/wind hybrid [10] Raja A.K., Sristavata P., Dwidevi M., 2006, “Power
system for electrification of small community in Ethiopia is Plant Engineering”, New Age international, New
carried out.. HOMER is used for optimization the system. Delhi, 2006
Finally I would conclude that grid connected PV/Wind [11] Buresch M. , Photovoltaic energy systems design and
Hybrid system optimization depends on two basic issues. installation,New York ; McGraw-Hill ; 1998
The first issue is based on less amount of cost of energy if [12] Aldo V., 2005, “Fundamentals of Renewable Energy
our optimization mostly focused on cost of energy the first processes”, Elsevier Inc., 2005
scenario is the best one, But in first scenario the amount of [13] Bekele G., 2009, “The Study Into the Potential and
PV penetrated to the system is very small almost negligible. Feasibility of Standalone Solar-Wind Hybrid Electric
The second optimization consider ofcapacity of renewable Energy Supply System for Application in Ethiopia”,
penetration to the grid. When the capacity of renewable KTH-Royal Institute of Technology Doctoral Thesis,
penetration to the grid the second scenario is best. However December 2009
based on these two scenarios it is possible to see further [14] Patil, Mukind R., 1999, “Wind and Solar Power
technical issue like Power quality problem, performance Systems”, CRC pres LLC, USA, 1999
analysis and so on. [15] Kaabeche, A.,M. Belhamel, and R. Ibtiouen, Sizing
optimization of grid-independent hybrid
References photovoltaic/wind power generation system:
Energy,2011
[1] Report of Energy sector in Ethiopia [16] Bekele G. and Palm B, 2010, “Feasibility Study for a
[2] Twidell J. And Weir T, 2006, “Renewable Energy Standalone Solar-Wind Hybrid Energy System for
Resources”, 2nd Edn, Taylor & Francis, London, 2006 Application in Ethiopia”, Applied Energy, Vol. 87,
[3] Duffie J.A., Beckman W.A., 1991, “Solar Engineering Issue 2, pp. 487–495.
of Thermal Processes”, 3rd Edn. Wiley, New York,
1991
[4] Patil, Mukind R., 1999, “Wind and Solar Power
Systems”, CRC pres LLC, USA, 1999
[5] Mulugetta Y. and Drake F., 1996, “Assessment of solar
and wind energy resources in Ethiopia: II. Wind
energy”, Solar Energy, Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 323-334
[6] Bekele G. and Palm B, 2010, “Feasibility Study for a
Standalone Solar-Wind Hybrid Energy System for
Application in Ethiopia”, Applied Energy, Vol. 87,
Issue 2, pp. 487–495
[7] Tamrat B, 2007 “Comparative Analysis of Feasibility
of Solar PV, Wind and Micro Hydropower Generation
for Rural Electrification in the Selected Sites of
Ethiopia”, Addis Ababa University MSc. Thesis, July
2007
[8] Drake F. and, Mulugetta Y., 1996, “Assessment of
solar and wind energy in Ethiopia. I. Solar energy”,
Solar Energy, Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 205-217, 1996
[9] Breyer Ch., Gerlach A., Hlusiak M., Peters C.,
Adelmann P., Winiecki J., Schützeichel H.,Tsegaye S.,
Gashie W., 2009 “Electrifying the Poor: Highly
Economic Off-Grid PV Systems in Ethiopia a Basis
for Sustainable Development”

Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194114 10.21275/ART20194114 488