International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
Economic Assessment of Photovoltaic-Diesel-Battery Based Power
Generation System for Low Cost Electrification of Residential House in
India
Modika Gupta
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Sciences and Humanities, Moradabad Institute of Technology, Moradabad, India
Abstract - In this paper an optimization model is developed
to perform the economic analysis of Photovoltaic (PV)–
diesel–battery based Power generation system. The objective
is to minimize life cycle cost of the system. A case study of a
residential house in Moradabad district (India) is considered
to examine the applicability of the optimization model. The
simulation result shows that the PV penetration of 86.6% and
diesel fraction of 13.4% give the best solution with minimum
LCC of $8441.The analysis of hybrid power generation
system shows that Moradabad district in Uttar Pradesh is a
potential candidate for the use of PV–battery–diesel system
for electricity generation.
Keywords - Photovoltaic, optimization India, residential,
simulation
CPVinitial
CPVoperational
CPVmaintenance_repair
CPVresidual
CPVinstallation
LCCHPGS
LCCphotovoltaic
Life Cycle Cost of PV
system ($)
Life Cycle Cost of
battery bank ($)
Life Cycle Cost of
diesel generator ($)
NOMENCLATURE
CBBinitial
CBBoperational_main
CBBreplacement
CBBresidual
CDGinitial
CDGoperational
CDGmaintenance_repair
CDGresidual
CDGservice
CDiesel
Initial cost of battery bank
($)
Operational & maintenance
cost of battery bank ($)
Replacement cost of battery
bank ($)
Residual cost of battery
bank ($)
Initial cost of diesel
generator ($)
Operational cost of diesel
generator ($)
Maintenance and repair cost
of diesel generator ($)
Residual cost of diesel
generator ($)
Service cost of diesel
generator ($)
Diesel cost per liter
($/liter)
ISSN: 2231-5381
Initial cost of PV
system ($)
Operational cost of PV
system ($)
Maintenance and repair cost
of PV system ($)
Residual cost of PV system
($)
Installation cost of PV
system ($)
Life Cycle Cost of hybrid
power generation system ($)
LCCbattery_bank
LCCdiesel_generator
I. INTRODUCTION
In the real energy production market, if a drop of
greenhouse effect gases is desired, it is essential to
encourage energy production scenarios where
renewable energy sources had more and more
significance. As a class of clean, hygienic and
renewable resource, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy
system has achieved noteworthy attention in recent
years due to the high energy cost and unfavorable
environmental impacts of conventional fossil fuels.
PV systems have made an important contribution
to daily life in developing countries, where one
third of the world’s population lives without
electricity [1].
However, a negative aspect of solar PV system is
their impulsive nature and reliance on weather and
climatic conditions, and the variations of solar
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
energy may not go with with the time distribution
of load demand [2]. Fortunately, the problems
caused by the variable nature of these resources
can be partially or wholly overcome by integrating
these two energy resources in a proper
combination, using the strengths of one source to
overcome the weakness of the other.
Economically optimal designs are vital for PV
systems in competing with the conventional and
more reliable power systems. High performance at
the minimum possible cost will promote the use of
such systems and show the way to more cost
effective systems gradually.
There are numeral studies about the size analysis
and cost optimization of PV–diesel–battery system
since the popular utilization of photovoltaic (PV)
modules in 1980s [3]. Some techniques [4,5]
placed more importance on the influences of
statistical characteristics of meteorological data on
the system performances, or the influences of nonlinear characteristics of system components and
operation strategies on the optimal sizing of
renewable energy systems; others [6,7] developed
some empirical equations to relate a limited set of
meteorological characteristic factors with the
system configurations based on time-step
performance simulations,
but the models used for the simulations are very
straightforward, for example, linear models are
used for simulating the characteristics of system
components, moreover, the load demand is
assumed to be constant throughout, so the
application ranges of the derived equations are
very restricted.
Some studies on the solar PV based hybrid power
generation system with energy storage have been
reported in the literature. Dakkak et al. [8]
presented a centralized energy management
strategy for a PV power generation system with
plural individual subsystems and a battery bank.
Using downhill simplex method, the cost of a PV
system using hydrogen storage technology was
optimized by Santarelli et al. [9]. While Nelson et
al. [10] evaluated a stand-alone PV-wind HPGS
using the single energy storage device (battery or
hydrogen). Vosen and Keller [11] assessed the cost
and efficiency of PV power generation systems
with different arrangements of energy storage
techniques. A hybrid energy storage system
coupled to PV power generation was analyzed in
Ref. [12].
Diesel
Generator
Solar
Photovoltaic
AC Load
Charge
Controller
Inverter and
Battery charger
DC Voltage
Battery
Bank
AC Voltage
Figure 1: Hybrid power generation System
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
II. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
In the present work the objective is to determine
the system component dimensions of a PV-dieselbattery based energy system for the electrification
of a residential house so that Life cycle cost of the
system is minimized. Therefore the objective
function of the optimization model is
Minimize
Where n is the number of system components.
The decision variables included in the optimization
process are the total area of PV arrays, number of
PV modules of 600 Wp, diesel generator power
(kW), number of batteries of 24V and 150 Ah, ,
annual fuel consumption. Data for cost analysis of
the system is shown in Table I. The system
configuration is shown in Figure 1.
III. CASE STUDY OF FAMILY HOUSE
In the present work a case study of a family house
in Moradabad district is considered. Family
consists of an average of 6 members with a family
income of $1600 per month. Moradabad is situated
in the western region of Uttar Pradesh in India, at
latitudes between 28o–
’to 28o–16’ N and 78o–
o
4’ to 79 E. The daily power requirement is 1900
Watt as shown in table II.
On the basis of previous five years electricity bills,
the average units of electricity required during
different months is calculate as indicated in table
III
IV.HOURLY SOLAR RADIATION ON THE TILTED
SURFACE
The solar PV panel can be located at any
orientation and at any inclination. The hourly solar
radiation output of PV module depends upon the
light intensity falling on the PV array, ambient
temperature and characteristic of PV module. Solar
collectors are generally tilted at an angle to
increase the amount of solar radiation captured and
to reduce the losses due to reflection. The hourly
solar output of PV system, the average solar
S.No.
Description
Value
1
PV system lifetime (N)
25 Years
2
Diesel generator life time
15 years
3
Battery lifetime
4 years
4
Initial Cost of 600 Wp PV module
$ 1000
5
PV system installation cost
10% of initial
capital cost
6
O & M cost of PV system per
year
2%
of
initial
capital cost
7
Inflation rate
5%
8
Discount rate
6%
9
Cost of 24V & 150 Ah single
battery
$200
10
Annual O & M cost of battery
bank
2%
of
initial
capital cost
11
Number of battery backup days
2
12
Maximum battery SOC
1
13
Minimum battery SOC
0.35
14
Cost of charge controller
$ 80
15
Inverter cost
$ 80
16
5 kW diesel generator cost
$1000
17
Diesel generator service period
4 years
18
Diesel generator service cost
12% of initial
capital cost
19
Annual O & M cost of diesel
generator
5%
of
initial
capital cost
20
Diesel cost per liter
$0.9/liter
21
Desired Loss of Load Probability
0.2
22
Desired system autonomy
0.8
average solar intensity on horizontal surface should
be converted to that on the tilted PV module. The
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
solar radiation data on horizontal and tilted surface
at an angle approximately equal to latitude of the
location is taken from reference [13].
CPVinitial = CPVmodules
CPVmiscellaneous
+
CPVinstallation +
(3)
II. TABLE II
DAILY POWER REQUIREMENT
Power
equipment
Units
required
Power (Watt)
Electric fan
CFL bulbs
Refrigerators
TV
Air cooler
Washing Machine
6
8
1
2
2
1
6x80=480
8x20=160
200
2x80=160
2x200=400
500
III. TABLE III
ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION PER DAY DURING DIFFERENT MONTHS OF THE YEAR
Month
Jan.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
No. of units
required
(kWh day1
)
7
8
15
15
21
21
21
21
15
15
8
7
V. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS USING LIFE CYCLE
COST METHOD
The concept of LCC is developed as the
benchmark of system cost analysis in this thesis.
According to the studied HPGS, the LCC of the
system is composed of Net Present Value (NPV) of
initial capital cost of all the components,
annualized operation and maintenance costs,
replacement costs, fuel cost and diesel generator
servicing cost.
LCCHPGS= LCCphotovoltaic + LCCbattery_bank +
LCCdiesel_generator
(1)
A. Life cycle cost of photovoltaic system
LCC of a PV system is the sum of initial capital
cost, the NPV of annualized operational cost, NPV
of annualized maintenance and repair cost minus
the PV residual cost.
LCCphotovoltaic = CPVinitial + CPVoperational +
CPVmaintenance_repair - CPVresidual
(2)
Initial cost of PV system includes capital cost of
PV modules, system installation cost and
miscellaneous cost. Therefore it is given by
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PV system installation cost is taken as percentage
Z6 (Z6= 10%) of the PV module cost [14].
CPVinstallation = Z6 × CPVmodules
(4)
Miscellaneous cost is assumed as percentage Z7
(Z7= 3 %) of the PV module cost
CPVmiscellaneous = Z7 × CPVmodules
(5)
Operational cost is taken as percentage Z8 (Z8= 2
%) of the PV module cost. Net present value of
annualized operational cost can be computed using
the following relation [14]
N
CPVoperational = Z8
CPVmodule
i=1
(1+e)i-1
(1+d)i
(6)
Where e is the inflation rate, d is the discount rate
and N is the lifetime of the system taken as 5 %,
8 % and 20 years respectively.
Maintenance and repair cost is assumed as
percentage Z9 (Z9= 4 %) of the PV module cost. Its
annualized NPV can be calculated by the following
equation:
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
N
CPVoperational = Z8
CPVmodule
i=1
(1+e)i-1
(1+d)i
Therefore Z12 is taken as 0.20. nr is calculated by
the following relation.
(7)
PV system residual cost is assumed percentage Z10
(Z10 = 15%) of PV module cost. Its present value
can be calculated by the equation.
CPVresidual = Z10
CPVmodule
1
(1 d )N
CBBresidual = Z12
(8)
LCC of a battery bank is the sum of initial capital
cost, the NPV of annualized operational cost, NPV
of battery replacement cost, NPV of annualized
maintenance cost minus the residual cost of last
battery bank at the end of useful life of HPGS.
LCCbattery_bank=CBBinitial+CBBoperational_maintenance+
CBBreplacement - CBBresidual
(9)
Operational cost is taken as percentage Z11 (Z11= 1
%) of the battery bank initial cost. Net present
value of annualized operational cost can be
computed using the following relation;
(1+e)i-1
i
i=1 (1+d)
CBBoperational_maintenance = Z11 CBBinitial
(10)
nr (1+e)nb(i-1)
ni
i=1 (1+d) b
abs
(13)
LCC of diesel generator is simulated by the
process explained by Agarwal [13] According to
this method LCC of diesel generator is given by:
LCCdiesel_gen =CDGinitial +
CDGmaintenance_repair - CDGresidual
CDGoperational +
(14)
The initial cost of diesel generator is calculated by:
CDGinitial = K × PDG
(15)
Where K is diesel generator cost per kW and PDG is
diesel generator power required in kW. Diesel
generator operational cost includes the annual fuel
cost and periodic service cost. Therefore
(16)
The NPV of diesel generator periodic service cost
is calculated according to the following relation.
CDGservice = Z13 CDGinitial
ng (1+e)r( i
i=1 (1+d)
1)
(17)
ri
(11)
Where nb is the battery replacement period (4
years) and nr is the number of battery replacements
in N number of years. It is assumed that the battery
bank exchange value is 20 % of its initial cost.
nr
1
(1 d )N
CDGoperational = CDGservice + CDGfuel
Here, it may be noted that battery bank requires
very less operation and maintenance. Therefore
operational and maintenance cost are combined
and taken as 1% of the battery bank initial cost.
The NPV of battery replacement cost is computed
by the following relation:
CBBreplacement=CBBinitial (1-Z12)
CBBmodule
C. Life cycle cost of diesel generator
B. Life cycle cost of battery bank system
N
N nb
nr abs
(12)
nb
The present value of the residual cost of the last
battery bank at the end of useful life of HPGS is
given by.
Where ng is the number of times the generator is
serviced during the lifetime of N years computed
by:
ng = abs N/r
(18)
r is the diesel generator service period and Z13 is
percentage of initial generator cost assumed as
N nb
nb
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
15%. The NPV of annual diesel cost is simulated
by the following equation:
N
CDGfuel = CDiesel ADiesel
i=1
(1+e)i-1
(1+d)i
(19)
Where ADiesel is the diesel consumption per year
and CDiesel is the diesel cost per liter taken as $0.91
per liter. The maintenance and repair cost of diesel
generator includes non periodic maintenance,
repair, spare parts etc. Its NPV is calculated by:
(1+e)i-1
i
i=1 (1+d)
N
CDGmaintenance _ repair = Z14 CDGinitial
(20)
Here Z14 (5%) is percentage of initial generator
cost. Lifespan of diesel generator is taken as 15
years; therefore it is replaced once during the
useful life of HPGS which is taken as 25 years.
The replacement cost of diesel generator is
calculated by the following relation.
CDGreplacement =(1- Z15 ) CDGinitial
1
(1 d )N
(21)
It is assumed that the diesel generator exchange
value is 20% of its initial cost. Therefore Z15 is
taken as 0.20. The present value of the residual
cost of diesel generator is calculated by.
1
(22)
CDGresidual = Z15 CDGinitial
(1 d )N
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
An optimization model is developed to perform the
economical analysis of PV-diesel- battery based
power generation system on the basis of life cycle
cost method. The objective is to minimize life
cycle cost of the system. A case study of family
house is considered to test the applicability of the
model. The average load demand per day is shown
in Table III. As shown in Table III the electricity
demand is peak in the month of May, June, July
and August.
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IV TABLE IV
LIST OF THE POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
S.
No.
PV module
of 600Wp
(Quantity)
Diesel
generator
(kW)
1
5
0
Battery
24V and
150 Ah
(Quantity)
12
2
4
1
11
3
5
0
12
4
4
1
10
5
5
0
13
6
4
1
9
7
5
0
14
8
3
1
9
9
3
1
8
10
3
1
7
11
2
1
6
12
2
1
5
13
2
1
5
14
2
1
4
Total
LCC ($)
8922
8441
8845
8994
9339
9732
9737
10378
10747
11189
11823
12707
13595
14271
Figure 2 clearly indicates that the PV area less than
14 m2 does not satisfy the load demands for all the
months of the year. However, with PV area of 34
m2, the load demand is assured for about 10
months. A standalone PV system without any
electricity shortage is acquired at an area of 36 m2.
The electricity shortage decreases as the
penetration of PV systems are raised; hence the
diesel consumption for electricity generation is
reduced.
LCC analysis of PV-diesel-battery system
presented in Figure 3. It can be seen that the total
life cycle cost of the system reduces as the PV
array area increases from 3 m2 to 19 m2. At an area
of 19 m2 and diesel generator power of 1 kW, total
LCC is minimum as shown in table IV.
VII. CONCLUSION
India is sanctified with high solar radiation levels.
The daily solar radiation is approximately 5
kWh/m2/day with sunshine ranging between 2300
and 3200 hours per year in most parts of the
country. In the present work an optimization model
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
is developed to perform the economic analysis of
Photovoltaic
–diesel–battery
based
Power
generation system using life cycle cost analysis
technique. A case study of a residential house in
Moradabad district (India) is considered to
of PV Modules, number of batteries of 24V and
150 Ah and diesel generator power. Results
indicates that the optimal configuration of an
power generation system includes 5 PV modules of
600Wp, 12 batteries of 24 V and 150 Ah and a
Figure 2: Electricity produced by photovoltaic arrays of different sizes
Figure 3: Life cycle cost of the system for different areas of photovoltaic arrays
different areas of photovoltaic arrays
examine the applicability of the optimization
model. Decision variables incorporated in the
optimization method are, total number of number
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 27 Number 1- September 2015
diesel generator power of 1 kW. This system
involves PV fraction of 86.6% and a diesel fraction
of 13.4% having LCC of $8441 for 25 years.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author is grateful to Management, Direct
General, Director, HOD AS&H and Registrar of
Moradabad Educational Trust Group of Institutions
for motivating for this research.
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