RESEARCH

Feasibility Assessment of a PV-Diesel Hybrid

Power System for an Isolated Off-Grid
Catholic Church
Ani Vincent Anayochukwu
Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Email:
vincent_ani@yahoo.com. Phone Number: +2348054024629
Received 29 May 2013; revision received 26 September
2013; accepted 01 October 2013. Published online 30
December 2013 (www.ejee.cl). DOI 10.7770/ejee-V1N3art526. ISSN: 0719-269X.
Renewable Energies Research Nucleus, UC Temuco

ABSTRACT Energy is essential for todays society and

it is difficult to imagine life without electrical energy.
This paper presents an analysis of the load requirements of the Catholic Parish Church, along with a
technical and economical feasibility assessment of
the option of incorporating solar Photo Voltaic (PV)
generation to supplement the existing diesel power
system that currently supplies power to the church.
The proposed system would meet around 53% of
the average annual parish church electrical load and
result in 47% reduction in diesel use and CO2 emissions compared to the diesel- only option. From the
analyses, the solar PV- diesel system has less total net
present cost and less emission as a result of less fuel
consumption of the diesel generator when compared
to the existing system (diesel only).

Off-grid power supply, renewable energy, solar hybrid system.

KEYWORDS

Introduction
Many villages in Nigeria are in isolated areas far from
the main utility grid. In Enugu state, especially in
the small villages or communities in the remote and
mountainous areas, access to electric energy is practically impossible due to the non-profitability of grid
extension. In many rural communities in the state,
extending electricity grids to meet their energy needs
may prove more costly and take longer than harnessing new and alternative sources of energy already
available in these communities - wind, solar, and
hydro. The attraction of these sources lies primarily
in their abundance and ready access. In Enugu State,
many of the rural areas lying remotely from the grid
have a high potential of renewable energy with solar
energy being the most abundant.

Overview of the study area problem

statement
The parish church under study is a Catholic Mission,
located in a remote setting of Ndiagu-Akpugo in
Nkanu-West local government area of Enugu State,

Anayochukwu
Feasibility Assessment of a Stand-Alone Hybrid PV-Diesel Power System for an Isolated Off-Grid Catholic Church

49

Nigeria. The church is not connected to the grid and

currently utilizes a diesel power generating system
to meet its energy needs. Here, they have a huge generator that provides continues power and operates
according to power demand but lacks the capacity to
run the generators for long periods of time, either due
to the expense and difficulty of obtaining fuel or the
lack of local mechanics to keep it running. Church
activities cannot be held without starting the generator. So, there is a need to look for an appropriate
source of reliable energy that is cost effective and sustainable for the church.
The objective of this study is to conduct the feasibility of installing solar PV generation to supply
around 50% of the churchs electrical energy needs,
while ensuring the least cost of energy and maintaining reliability of supply. The aim of this study is to
reduce the churchs carbon footprint and reduce its
dependence on diesel fuel.

Hybrid Power system

Hybrid PV systems are best suited to reduce dependence on fossil fuel by using available solar radiation.
Hybrid PV system includes the PV generator, diesel
generator and/or battery system. Battery storage increases the flexibility of system control and adds to
overall system availability [Shaahid and El-Hadidy,
2003; Shaahid and El-Hadidy, 2004]. These energy
systems have good prospects and many opportunities
in Nigeria, and are termed as one of the cost-effective solutions to meet energy requirements of remote
areas. A review of the hybrid PV/Diesel system can
be found in [Ani and Emetu, 2013].

Simulation and Optimization Tool

The Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) optimizes energy systems. HOMER is a computer model that simplifies the task of
evaluating design options for both off-grid and gridconnected power systems for remote, stand-alone
and distributed generation (DG) applications [NREL,
2005]. It is developed specifically to meet the needs of

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the renewable energy industrys system analysis and

optimization [Lau et al, 2010].
The simulation process serves two purposes. First,
it determines whether the system is feasible. HOMER
considers the system to be feasible if it can adequately
serve the electric and thermal loads and satisfies any
other constraints imposed by the user. Second, it estimates the life-cycle cost of the system, which is the
total cost of installing and operating the system over
its lifetime. In the optimization process, HOMER
performs simulation on different system configurations to come out with the optimal selection. In the
sensitivity analysis process, HOMER performs multiple optimizations under a range of inputs to account
for uncertainty in the model inputs.
There exist many references of using HOMER as a
simulation tool including [Ani, 2013; Ani and Nzeako,
2012; Nfah et al, 2008; Rehman et al, 2007; Georgilakis, 2005; Khan and Iqbal, 2005; Shaahid et al, 2004;
Lilienthal et al, 2004], among others. [Al-Karaghouli
and Kazmerski, 2010] applied HOMER to study the
life cycle cost of a renewable system for a rural health
clinic in Iraq. Elhadidy and Shaahid [2004] and Nema
et al. [2007] carried out system sizing using HOMERoptimization and simulation software tool. Borowy
and Salameh [1996] reported an algorithm based on
energy concept to optimally sized PV array in a PV/
wind hybrid system. Kamaruzzaman et al [2008],
Lambert [2009] and Ani [2013] used the annualized
cost of a component to derive the calculation of the
total Net Present Cost (NPC) of energy systems. Kamel and Dahl [2005] and Khan and Iqbal [2005] also
used the HOMER software to find optimum sizing
and minimizing cost for hybrid power system with
specific load demand in stand-alone applications.
Ashok [2007], developed a reliable system operation
model based on HOMER to find an optimal hybrid
system among different renewable energy combinations while minimizing the total life cycle cost. Protogeropoulos et al. [1998] carried out the optimization
of PVWind Battery systems, modifying the size of
the batteries until a configuration that ensures sufficient autonomy is achieved. Koutroulis et al. [2006]
presented a paper for economic optimization by

means of Genetic Algorithms on PVWindBattery

systems. Yang et al. [2007] present a method for the
optimization of hybrid PVWindBattery systems
which minimize the LCE. The optimization is carried
out by trying component combinations: changing the
number of PV modules, the orientation of PV modules, the rated power of the wind turbine, the tower
height of the wind turbine, and the capacity of the battery bank. Diaf et al. [2008] present an application of
hybrid PVWindBattery systems in Corsica (France)
which minimizes the LCE. In addition, simulations of
the optimum system of hybrid PVwindbattery was
carried out by Berrill [2005], using HOMER and HYBRIDS and comparing the simulations obtained with
each of the two programs. The HOMER model has
been used for different household electrification feasibility studies [Ani, 2013; Ani and Nzeako, 2012; Farret
and Simes, 2006; Iqbal, 2003; Manwell et al, 2003; Jubran et al, 2003; Fung et al, 2002; Debra et al, 1997].
Barley et al. [1988] conducted a study using timeseries computer simulation models to estimate the
potential fuel and cost savings that may be achieved
by retrofitting hybrid power systems to these existing
diesel plants. The study found that wind retrofits to
the existing diesel power plants in the Philippines are
the most likely to be cost effective for wind speeds
of approximately 5.5 m s-1 or more and fuel prices of
US$0.20 to US$0.25 L-1. [Manwell and McGowan,
2004] presented the feasibility study of potential
hybrid energy developments on the islands of New
England. The study showed that there is a great potential for hybrid system energy development in a
number of New England Islands. Also, [Nfah et. al.,
2007] studied a solar/diesel/battery hybrid power
systems to meet the energy demands of a typical rural
domestic in the range of 70300 kWh yr-1 and found
that a hybrid power system comprising a 1440Wp
solar pv array and a 5kW generator could meet the
required load.

System Design
In order to design a power system, it is necessary to
provide some information from a particular remote

location [Ani and Nzeako, 2012]. This information

includes the load profile that should be met by the
system, solar radiation for solar PV generation, initial cost of each component (renewable energy generators, diesel generator, battery, converter), annual
interest rate, project lifetime, etc [Elliot et al, 2003;
Renne et al, 2003]. After that, the simulation was performed to obtain the best power system configuration, which in this paper is done by utilizing HOMER
software from NREL [Ani and Emetu, 2013].

Description of the energy load at the Catholic

Mission
The parish house is a duplex building. It has four
rooms, a kitchen and a sitting room at the ground
floor, while it has three masters rooms and a small
sitting room upstairs. The building is furnished with
electric power consumptions such as: washing machine, electric stove, electric pressing iron, DVD, Stereo
Cassette, Television, Decoder/cable, water pumping
machine, fans, electric bulbs, water bath, deep-freezer and microwave. Each room has fan, electric bulb
and television. In the church building, there are two
sections; the parish priest office and the church hall.
In the parish priest office, the electric power consumptions are: air conditioner, computers (laptop
and desktop), fridge, Television, Decoder, printer
and bulbs. In the church hall where the congregation
comes together to worship, the electric power consumptions are: fans and bulbs. The church has seven
staff members (2 cookers/chefs, 2 seminarians, and 3
mass servants) with one parish priest.

The Pattern of Using Electric Power within the

Church
The lights in the parish house and in the church are
on from 5 am till 8 am. At this time, it goes off, once
rays of light come in through the windows during day
time (8 am-5 pm). The light comes on again at 5 pm
until 10 pm. Once it is 10 pm, the light is turned off.
The fans both in the parish house and at the church
are all on from 5 am till 10 pm.

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51

In the office, the fridge, television, decoder, computers and the printer all remain on from 8 am to 5
pm and the air conditioner is also on.
At the parish house, the deep-freezer remains on
24 hours. Between 3 am and 4 am, the occupants
make use of the water for their morning bathing. The
parish priest plays music from 4 am till 5 am, and
conducts morning mass by 5 am and ending by 6 am.

Load Assessment
In order to establish the power needs of the church, an
energy audit was carried out based on data provided
by the parish priest and a site visit to evaluate the characteristics of the power system, power requirements,
system management and operation. The daily power
demands for the parish house are given in Table 1.
The table shows estimation of each appliances rated power, its quantity and the hours of use by the
church in a single day. The miscellaneous load is for
unknown loads in the church.
The daily average load variation is shown in Fig.
1. It is assumed that it is identical for every day of the
year. The annual peak load of 8.03 kW was observed
between 18:00 h and 19:00 h with 117 KWh d-1 energy consumption.

Study area
The study area is located in a valley with poor wind
but good solar resources. It is geographically located
at 61960.0 N latitude and 73560.0 E longitu-

Figure 1 Daily average load variation for a Catholic Mission.

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de with annual average solar radiation of 4.92 kWh

m-2d-1. The solar resource data was obtained from the
NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy web
site [NASA, 2013]. Fig. 2 shows the solar resource
profile of this location.

Solar Radiation Variation

February is the sunniest month of the year. In this
month, solar energy resource is 5.7 kWh m-2d-1 while
in August it is only 3.9 kWh m-2d-1 as shown in Fig. 2.
In the months of September, October, November,
December, January, and February, the solar radiation
increases with differences from month to month as
(0.28), (0.38), (0.54), (0.35), (0.22), and (0.06) respectively. Whereas in the months of March, April, May,
June, July, and August, the solar radiation decreases
with differences from month to month as (0.17),
(0.32), (0.31), (0.4), (0.4), and (0.23) respectively.

Power System Description

The following system configurations have been considered in this study:
1) Diesel generator only
2) Diesel generator, PV array and inverter (no battery)
3) Diesel generator, PV array, control system, and
battery bank
For option (3) of the above configurations, a control system is required, which is capable to control the
diesel generator set and manage the battery charging

Figure 2 Solar daily radiation profile for Ndiagu-Akpugo in

Nkanu-West (Enugu State).

Table 1 Daily Power Demands for the Catholic Mission

Components

Power
Rating
(Watts)

Hrs/
day

(Qty)

Watt Hrs/
day

Kilowatt
Hrs/day

Time in use

Medium size deep

freezer

130

24

3120

3.12

12 am 12 am

Water pumping
machine

1000

1000

1 pm 2 pm

Washing Machine

280

280

0.28

9 am 10 am

Electric stove

1000

2000

5 pm 7 pm

Microwave Oven

1000

2000

6 am 7 am; 11am 12
noon

Electric pressing iron

1000

1000

12 noon 1 pm

Air-Conditioner

1170

10530

10.53

8 am 5 pm

Refrigerator

500

4500

4.5

8 am 5 pm

Water bath

1000

2000

3 am 4 am; 6 pm 7 pm

Ceiling fan

100

29

17

49300

49.3

5 am 10 pm

Incandescent Bulb

60

31

16740

16.74

5 am 9am; 5 pm 10
pm

Lighting-outdoor
(security)

25

10

13

3250

3.25

6 pm 7 am

21 TV with Decoder

150

1350

1.35

8 am 5 pm

21 TV

100

11

1100

1.1

6 pm 5 am

14 Television

80

22

14080

14.08

6 am 5 pm; 6 pm 5 am

Sony Music System

100

100

0.1

4 am 5 am

DSTV Receiver

50

22

1100

1.1

6 am 5 pm; 6 pm 5 am

DVD Player

50

100

0.1

7 pm 9 pm

Computer printer

100

100

0.1

3 pm 4 pm

computer PC

115

1035

1.035

8 am 5 pm

Computer Laptop

35

315

0.315

8 am 5 pm

Miscellaneous

100

24

2400

2.4

12 am 12 am

Total

8195

117400

117.4 kW

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Figure 3 Diagram of the proposed PV/Diesel Hybrid System Configuration.

from both the PV and the generator. A control system

for the hybrid PV - diesel energy system is shown in
Fig. 4.1 and 4.2. Fig. 3 is a diagram of the proposed
hybrid system configuration (option 3).

Hybrid PV - Diesel Energy System Controller

(Supervisory Controller)
It is well-known a good operation of a hybrid system
can be achieved only by a suitable control of the interaction in the operation of the different devices. An
exhaustive knowledge of the management strategies
to be chosen in the preliminary stage is therefore fundamental to optimize the use of the renewable sources, minimize the wear of batteries, and consume the
smaller possible quantity of fossil fuel [Ani, in press;
Ani and Emetu, 2013; Seeling-Hochmuth, 1997]. In
this study, a supervisory controller was developed to
regulate the power of the power generating system
(PV/Diesel Hybrid system). The PV power (PPV) generation is the primary source of energy, the battery
(Echar_max,disch_max) acts as the supplement and the
diesel generator power (PDG) as the back-up source of
energy. Fig. 4 outlines the flow between the different

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modes. The system uses solely the energy generated

by the PV panels to supply the load (EL). When the
PV panels produce excess energy, it is used to charge the battery (Echar_max). During the charging of the
battery, if the excess energy from the PV is less than
the battery charging (Echar_max), then there will be no
excess energy (E.E), but if the excess energy from the
PV is greater than the battery charging (Echar_max),
then the excess energy will be calculated by the system. The Loss of power supply (LPS) is equal to zero;
meaning that the load will always be satisfied.
Conversely, if the energy supplied by the PV panels is not sufficient to supply the load, then the system goes to the decision mode (SOC<orthanSOC%)
where the program determines what element (batteries or diesel generator) has priority to supply energy
using decision rules, based on two conditions:
If the SOC of the battery is greater than the minimum amount and therefore the battery is able
to supply power to the load, then the battery will
be used.
If the load cannot be supplied by the energy source i.e. the power of the PV panels is not suffi-

Figure 4.1 Supervisory Controller for the Hybrid PV - Diesel Energy System.

cient to supply the load and the battery is at its

minimum SOC and therefore cannot be used to
supply the deficit of power required, then the diesel generator will be used to supply the load and
charge the battery.
This is done by monitoring the power needed by
the load and the capacity of the power generating mechanism. From this control simulation we are able to
see the performance of the system over the course of
the year, and track which modes the system spends
the most time in, the power supplied by each of the
energy sources over the year, and the power required
by the load over the year.

Hybrid System Controller

An operational control strategy is a Hybrid system controller that consists of certain predetermined control settings [time ( i = i + 1; i = 1 23
23
) and state of charge of battery] that are set when
installing the system. Such settings concern the
set point of when to switch on the diesel or not,
based on certain values representing the system
state, such as the battery state of charge and demand placed on the system. The time-independent controller setting in the developed design
algorithm is shown in Fig. 4.2.

Anayochukwu
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Figure 4.2 Hybrid System Controller Block Diagram [Ani and Emetu, 2013].

Assumptions
A number of constraints and assumptions were made
in order to develop the input information required
for the simulation model used to optimize size and
life cycle economics. These assumptions are described below.
1) there is no capacity shortage for the system and
operating reserve is 10% of hourly load. The operating reserve as a percentage of hourly load was 10%.
Meanwhile, the operating reserve as a percentage of
solar power output was 25%.
2) the cost analysis is based on a system lifetime
of 20 years. The lifetime of PV Modules is taken as
20 years. The lifetime of the inverter is estimated as
20 years. The diesel generator operational life is assumed as 20,000 hours. The battery life is assumed
to be 9,390 cycles at 23.3% depth of discharge. A real
interest rate of 6 % was used for the analysis. The capital costs for all system components including the
PV module, diesel generator, inverter, battery and balance of system prices are based on quotes from PV
system suppliers in Nigeria [Solarshopnigeria, 2013;
Ani and Emetu, 2013]. The replacement costs of equipment are estimated to be 20% 30% lower than the
initial costs. All initial costs including installation
and commissioning, replacement costs and operating
and maintenance costs are summarized in Table 2.

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Configuration of the Stand-Alone Energy

System
The design of a stand-alone hybrid system is site specific and depends on both the resources available and
the load demand [Ani and Nzeako, 2012; Ani, 2013].
A typical stand-alone hybrid diesel-solar PV system
has an electricity generation device equipped with
the wiring setup and supporting structures, as well
as necessary BOS components (i.e., the battery bank,
the charging controller and the DC/AC inverter) [Kamaruzzaman et al, 2009]. The diagram of a proposed
stand-alone hybrid Diesel-solar PV system is shown
in Fig. 5 below.

Figure 5 The network architecture for the HOMER simulator

(Proposed stand-alone hybrid Diesel-solar PV system).

Table 2 Summary of initial system costs, Replacement costs and Operating

& Maintenance costs [Solarshopnigeria, 2013; Ani and Emetu, 2013]
Item

Initial System Costs

Replacement Costs

Operating & Maintenance Costs

N 324/W ($2)

N 291.6/W ($1.8)

N 16,200/kW/yr ($100)

20kVA Diesel Generator

N 2,106,000 ($13,000)

N 2,106,000 ($13,000)

N 405/hr ($2.5)

Surrete 6CS25P battery

N 185,490 ($1,145)

N 162,000 ($1,000)

N 16,200 ($100)

N 324/W ($2)

N 324/W ($2)

N 16,200/kW/yr ($100)

PV modules

Converter

Optimization analysis of the HOMER shows that

the most least lowest cost and the optimal combination of energy system components is the combination
of the 16 kW diesel generator, 20 kW solar PV array,
96 Surrette 6CS25P Battery Cycle Charging, and a
control system. Fig. 6 shows a complete list of HOMER solutions.

Discussion of Results
The simulations provide information concerning the
electricity production, economic costs and environmental characteristics of each system, such as the
CO2 emissions. The obtained results are presented in
Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6. The detailed analyses obtained at
the end of the simulations are described below:

Proposed Hybrid System: Solar PV-Diesel

System with Battery Bank
In this hybrid system, the PV system supplies 29,884
kWh yr-1 (53%) of the annual electricity production, while the Diesel generator contributes 26,973
kWh yr-1 (47%) of the total electricity with a capacity
factor of 19.2%, as shown in Table 6. The PV-diesel
system gives an opportunity for renewable energy
to supply 53%, as shown in Table 3. It has total NPC
of $5,918,549, operating cost of $429,730, and initial
cost of $425,160 as shown in and Table 4. This system saves $22,247,359 for the church when compared
with the diesel only.
In a hybrid PV-diesel system, the diesel generator
operates for 1,715 h annum-1; has a fuel consumption

Figure 6 Overall Optimization results of HOMER selected solutions.

Anayochukwu
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57

Figure 7 Electrical production of hybrid Diesel-solar PV energy system with storage.

Figure 8 Electrical production of hybrid Diesel-solar PV energy system without storage.

of 8,938 L annum-1 and an operational life of 11.7 yr,

as shown in Table 6. This system emits 23.538 tones
of CO2, 0.0581 tones of CO, 0.00644 tones of UHC,
0.00438 tones of PM, 0.0473 tones of SO2, and 0.518
tones of NOx annually into the atmosphere as shown
in Table 5. A 53% decrease in each pollutant is noticed for a 53% renewable penetration into the existing diesel only power system. The reduction in the
quantity of different air pollutants for 53% renewable
penetration compared to that diesel only are thus:
39.785 tones of CO2, 0.0979 tones of CO, 0.01086
tones of UHC, 0.00742 tones of PM, 0.0797 tones of
SO2, and 0.877 tones of NOx.

Solar PV-Diesel System without Battery Bank

In this hybrid system, the PV system supplies 29,884
kWh yr-1 (42%) of the annual electricity production, while the Diesel generator contributes 41,003
kWh yr-1 (58%) of the total electricity with a capacity
factor of 29.3%, as shown in Fig. 8 and Table 6. The
PV-diesel system gives an opportunity for renewable
energy to supply 42%, as shown in Table 3. A Solar

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PV-diesel system without battery has total NPC of

$28,165,908, operating cost of $2,184,552, and initial
cost of $240,000 as shown in Table 4.
In this hybrid system, the diesel system operated
for 7,806 h annum-1; had a fuel consumption of 20,243
L annum-1 and operational life of 2.56 yr, as shown in
Table 6. It generated 53.307 tones of CO2, 0.132 tones
of CO, 0.0146 tones of UHC, 0.00992 tones of PM,
0.107 tones of SO2, and 1.174 tones of NOx as shown
in Table 5. A 42% decrease in each pollutant was noticed for a 42% renewable penetration into the existing diesel only power system. The reduction in the
quantity of different air pollutants for 42% renewable
penetration compared to that diesel only are thus:
10.016 tones of CO2, 0.024 tones of CO, 0.0027 tones
of UHC, 0.00188 tones of PM, 0.02 tones of SO2, and
0.221 tones of NOx.

Existing System: Diesel Only

The Diesel-only system contributes 100% of the total
electricity with a capacity factor of 36.6% as shown
in Table 3, and Table 6 respectively. It has total NPC

Table 3 Comparison of Simulation results of Electricity Production (kWh yr-1)

Diesel only

Quantity

Diesel in Hybrid System

(Diesel-solar PV) without
batteries

Diesel in Hybrid System

(Diesel-solar PV) with
batteries

kWh yr-1

kWh yr-1

kWh yr-1

42,705

100

42,705

100

42,705

100

PV array

None

None

29,884

42

29,884

53

Diesel Generator

51,334

100

41,003

58

26,973

47

Total energy

51,334

100

70,887

100

56,858

100

Load
AC primary load
Production

Table 4 Comparison of Simulation results of Economic Cost.

Parameter

Existing System
Diesel only

Proposed Project
Hybrid Diesel-solar PV
System without battery

Proposed Project
Hybrid Diesel-solar PV
System with battery

Initial Cost

$240,000

$405,000

$425,160

Operating Cost ($/yr)

$2,184,552

$1,946,410

$429,730

Levelized Cost($/kWh)

$51.594

$46.320

$10.842

$28,165,908

$25,286,652

$5,918,549

Total NPC

of $28,165,908, operating cost of $2,184,552, and initial cost of $240,000 as shown in Table 4. Diesel only
system operates for 8,760 h annum-1; has a fuel consumption of 24,047 L annum-1 and operational life of
2.28 yr, as shown in Table 6. It generates 63.323 tones of CO2, 0.156 tones of CO, 0.0173 tones of UHC,
0.0118 tones of PM, 0.127 tones of SO2, and 1.395 tones of NOx as shown in Table 5.
In summary, the diesel only system had the least
initial capital cost, but in the end had the highest total net present cost for the whole project. The hybrid
system topologies needed higher initial capital cost,
but in the end they had less total net present cost as a
result of less fuel consumption.

Comparison of System Design Scenarios

The results of the analysis of three possible system
configuration scenarios considered in this study are
summarized in Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6. These scenarios
are also compared with the existing diesel only option.
The first scenario is a PV-diesel-battery hybrid
system configuration a battery bank and a control system.
The second scenario is a PV-diesel hybrid system
configuration with NO battery storage.
The third and final scenario is a diesel only system
which is currently in place at the parish church.
Economic indices determined the life cycle economics of the system. Of particular interest are

Anayochukwu
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59

Table 5 Comparison of simulation results of Pollutant Emissions.

Emissions (kg yr-1)
Pollutant (t yr-1)

Existing system Diesel only

Diesel-solar PV system
without Batteries

Diesel-solar PV system with

Batteries

Carbon dioxide

63.323

53.307

23.538

Carbon monoxide

0.156

0.132

0.0581

Unburned hydrocarbons

0.0173

0.0146

0.00644

Particulate matter

0.0118

0.00992

0.00438

Sulfur dioxide

0.127

0.107

0.0473

Nitrogen oxides

1.395

1.174

0.518

Table 6 Comparison of diesel characteristics in diesel only and diesel in hybrid system.
Diesel in Hybrid System
(Diesel-solar PV) without
batteries

Diesel only

Quantity

Diesel in Hybrid System

(Diesel-solar PV) with
batteries

Value

Units

Value

Units

Value

Units

Hours of operation

8,760

h yr-1

7,806

h yr-1

1,715

h yr-1

Operational life

2.28

yr

2.56

yr

11.7

yr

Capacity factor

36.6

29.3

19.2

24,047

L yr-1

20,243

L yr-1

8,938

L yr-1

Fuel consumption

the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and total net

present cost (NPC). This information, in turn,
enables the optimum renewable energy component sizes that would be required to meet the
specified fraction of the load at the least cost. The
most important environmental indices are fuel
consumption and CO2 emissions. The best LCOE
is given by the PV-diesel-battery hybrid power
systems.

System Recommendation
The church will be able to choose the system that is
most suitable for its requirements based on project
evaluation criteria, such as initial capital cost, cost of

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Vol. 1, No. 3, December, 2013. ISSN: 0719-269X

energy, diesel use, etc. All of the results are tabulated

in Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 allowing a comparison of the
various options.
PV - battery-diesel with storage
PV - diesel with no storage
Diesel only system
As indicated in Table 4, the cost of energy supplied
from a PV-diesel system with 20 kW PV array, and
96 Surrette 6CS25P batteries would be approximately $40.752 kWh-1 lower than the cost of electricity
supplied from the diesel only option. If future interest
rates are lower than the 6% that has been assumed,
the cost of energy supplied from the PV diesel battery hybrid system would be reduced greatly, whereas
the cost of electricity supplied using the diesel only

option would not change significantly. Also, if the future cost of diesel is higher than the cost used in this
calculation, the cost of supplying electricity using the
diesel only option would increase more than would
all of the other options discussed.
In the PV-Diesel configuration without battery
storage, the PV array size is constrained by the minimum base load of the church. If the PV array is too
large, the energy from the PV array would have to
be wasted, which leads to poor utilization of the PV
and the solar resource. One would not recommend a
stand-alone system that did not include battery storage as such a configuration would require the diesel
generator to operate continuously and would force
the diesel generator to operate at very low load conditions for extended periods of time, reducing significantly the fuel efficiency and the diesel engine lifetime. This would in turn significantly offset the CO2
emissions reduction as seen in Table 5. In addition,
even though this configuration is technically feasible,
no known, off-the-shelf inverters are available that
can perform the control task for this configuration.

Conclusions
This paper is an initial assessment based on limited
load data, but can be used as the basis for a detailed
hybrid power system design for an isolated off-grid
parish church. A hybrid system (PV/diesel energy
system without batteries) was analyzed but it yielded poor life cycle economics, high CO2 emissions
and high diesel usage compared to the other system
(PV/diesel energy system with battery). The proposed system (PV/diesel energy system with battery
and supervisory controller) would meet around 53%
of the average annual parish church electrical load
and result in 47% reduction on diesel use and CO2
emissions compared to the diesel only option. Based
on the comparisons of the different systems modeled,
the hybrid PV/diesel system with battery bank and
supervisory controller was the best. It had the lowest
NPC, and the power drawn from the diesel is minimal, amounting to a considerable reduction in the
amount of CO2 emitted from the system. The develo-

ped supervisory controller was used in the proposed

hybrid system configuration (option 3) to regulate
the power of the power generating system (PV/Diesel
Hybrid system with battery). This is done by monitoring the power needed by the load and the capacity
of the power generating mechanism as shown in Fig.
4.2.
This study shows that developing a stand-alone
hybrid power system is more cost effective, reliable
and suitable for rural applications than running
stand-alone diesel generators.

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