International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 118 No. 19 2018, 2381-2396

ISSN: 1311-8080 (printed version); ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.ijpam.eu
Special Issue
ijpam.eu

Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis of

Hybrid Power System in HOMER for
the study area
Kamal Kant Sharma1 and Balwinder Singh2
1
Assistant Professor,
Department of EE,
Chandigarh University,
Chandigarh
sharmakamal2002@gmail.com
2
Professor,
Department of EE,
PEC University of Technology,
Chandigarh
balwindersingh@pec.ac.in
February 1, 2018

Abstract
In this paper, an economic analysis is carried out on
various standalone and hybrid systems based on sensitiv-
ity analysis of different converter sizes for a remote area
situated in Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh, India.
This study is carried out considering the effect of with and
without grid integration in standalone and hybrid systems.
From the analysis, it is found that total net present cost
(NPC) for hybrid system is much less than that of stan-
dalone systems, thus ensuring the reliability and continuity
of power in case hybrid system is incorporated in the case
study. A hybrid system is integrated with grid via power
electronic interface. It helps in improving load leveling by

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supplying load when grid power is in excess and by use of

diesel generator when grid power is deficient.

Key Words : Hybrid Power System, Distributed Gen-

eration (DG), Net Present Cost (NPC), Renewable Energy
Sources (RES), Hybrid Optimization Micropower Energy
Renewable (HOMER) etc.

1 INTRODUCTION
In today’s era, India faces very big challenge to fulfill energy de-
mands of consumers having good power quality in a sustainable
way and at economic tariff. To achieve millennium development
goals 7 and 8, India required 8-10% economic growth in next 25
years to exterminate power completely.
The implementation of a small scale energy system for rural
electrification involves many different costs and components whose
price varies with the many factors such as advancement of tech-
nologies and the use of resources etc. The most important factor to
be considered is economic costs and benefits of a plan in order to
make it sustainable and profitable. The chapter analyzes the con-
figuration of hybrid system proposed in HOMER for electrification
and the economics related with the use of wind, hydro, diesel and
battery for meeting various energy requirements [1-2].
Hybrid systems are composed of one or more RES which works
in isolated or grid connected mode. In our research study, we have
taken wind and mini/micro hydro sources as they are reliable source
of electricity. Due to intermittent nature of wind, conventional
diesel generator and storage devices are also integrated with hybrid
system in order to deliver deficient load to consumers [3, 12-16].
When DG and grid is connected, it has both technical and eco-
nomical impact. Storage devices are used for smoothing the fluc-
tuations in DG output due to unexpected system load and min-
imizing power interchange from grid. The impacts of DG with
storage devices on distribution system are presented in [7-8]. The
technical simulation performs transient stability analysis of hybrid
system under consideration along with various storage devices such
as battery, super-capacitor etc. DG comprises of small synchronous
and induction generators. Various DG technologies, fault location

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and type and varying penetration index of SG are analyzed and it

is found that storage device have irrefutable impact on transient
stability. The economic analysis includes the cost of system with
different DG configurations with and without storage devices and
all are equated using HOMER software. Finally, analysis of cost
vs. benefits of DG and storage device is compared [7-8, 15].
The objective of this study is to optimize and carry out cost
analysis to find out the best optimum and feasible solution out
of number of hybrid systems with and without battery storage de-
vice and with and without grid integration. Microgrid optimization
HOMER software is used to carry out cost optimization analysis of
system comprising of DG and storage devices. The economic anal-
ysis of standalone and hybrid systems is carried out in microgrid
optimization HOMER software with and without grid integration.
The data for wind speed and average water flow is taken for a par-
ticular site in Bharmour, Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh.
The data for solar irradiation for a particular year is taken from
NASA website. The load or demand assessment is taken on hourly
basis of a minor area of Chamba district. The economics of all the
cases is kept same at annual interest rate of 5% and total life of
hybrid system is expected to be 20 years. The rate of diesel fuel is
also according to current tariff. The sensitivity analysis is carried
out by considering different size of diesel generator and thereafter,
optimization analysis is carried out which presents most optimum
and feasible solution for all the cases. The production and con-
sumption of plants for various cases is presented in result analysis
and NPC are compared and validated.

2 SYSTEM UNDER CONSIDERATION

The hybrid system design depends on various sensitivity variables
for optimizing cost and size effaciously. Thus, before starting cost
analysis, certain design parameters like wind speed, water flow,
solar irradiation, load profile etc. should be studied thoroughly and
data should be collected for some time duration. The study area is
situated in Bharmour, Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh state,
India and it geographically extends over south-eastern portion of
Chamba district. The latitude and longitude of Bharmour, Chamba

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district are 320 26’ N and 760 32’ E respectively [1, 4-5, 9-10].

A. Wind Speed Data

The wind data is taken for three years viz. 2009-2011 from [16]
website for this site location and average wind speed is found to
be 2.43 m/s. The scaled data of wind speed for monthly average is
shown in Fig. 1. Table 1 shows wind speed in a year produced by
HOMER [1, 4-5, 9-10]. The capital, replacement and O&M costs
are shown in Annex I.

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B. Mini/Micro Hydro Plant Data

The mini/micro hydro data is collected for three year viz. 2009-
2011 for daily derived flow series in cumecs. The district receives
maximum rainfall during the months between May to September
through south-east monsoon. The average rainfall of this district
is found to be 27.32 cumecs and it is mostly erratic [11]. Fig.
2 shows monthly average water flow in liters/second and Table 2
shows monthly average water flow [1, 4-5, 9-10]. The capital, re-
placement and O&M costs are shown in Annex I.

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C. Solar PV Plant Data

The solar irradiation data on a hourly basis is taken for a year from
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website
[6]. The average solar radiation is 5.05 kWh/m2/d. The CI and
average solar irradiation for a year are shown in Table 3, while Fig.
3 shows the solar irradiation in a year produced by HOMER. The
capital, replacement and O&M costs are shown in Annex I.

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D. Load/Demand Assessment Data

Electrical load comprises of one or more equipments consuming

electrical power. The data for load assessment is taken on daily
hourly basis for a residential area of a small block of Chamba dis-
trict. The expected load profile for daily consumption of an area is
shown in Fig. 4 and it is found to be 675 kWh/day for the specified
residential area whereas peak load is found to be 1500 kW. Table
4 depicts load consumption for one day [1, 4-5, 9-10].

The cost summary, technical details of components and other

required input parameters for hybrid system simulation in HOMER
software is shown in Annex I.

3 STANDALONE AND HYBRID SYS-

TEMS
The standalone systems and hybrid systems along with diesel gen-
erator are simulated in HOMER software with and without grid

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integration [4-5, 7-8]. Both the systems are compared to grid ex-
tension in future while doing simulation in HOMER software. The
layout of three standalone systems viz. wind, mini/micro hydro
and solar PV consisting of diesel generator with grid integration
to power the load has been modeled using micro grid optimization
software HOMER as shown in Fig. 5(a), (b) and (c) respectively.

The layout of hybrid system consisting of wind, mini/micro hy-

dro and solar PV along with diesel generator with grid integration
to power the load has been modeled using NREL HOMER software
as shown in Fig. 6 [1, 9-10].

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4 SIMULATION PROCEDURE
For the simulation two different cases are considered viz. with and
without grid integration. Each of the cases includes different sub-
systems which are as listed below [7-8]:

a. Wind Diesel

b. Mini/Micro Hydro Diesel

c. Solar PV Diesel

d. Wind Mini/Micro Hydro Diesel

e. Mini/Micro Hydro Solar PV Diesel

f. Wind Solar PV Diesel

g. Wind Mini/Micro Hydro Solar PV Diesel

These fourteen different configurations include different DG con-

nection, grid integration and the net present cost (NPC) is found
out for each configuration. The capital, replacement and O&M
costs for DG of each configuration are evaluated for each case. The
NPC includes capital cost, replacement cost, fuel cost and all other
cost that are involved for entire project lifetime.

5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The standalone system is simulated in HOMER software which
finds an optimum solution for all sensitivity variables. The opti-
mum solution for standalone system with grid integration is shown
in Fig. 7. For solar PV-Diesel standalone plant, the total NPC is
$280,103. The system consumes zero litre of diesel fuel per year
and annual generator run time is also zero hours. Thus, the total
cost incurred per year for the proposed system is also zero. Fig. 8
shows the monthly average electric production of the system which
is totally produced by solar PV and due to grid integration for a
solar PV Diesel plant.

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The hybrid system with grid integration is simulated in HOMER

software which finds an optimum solution for nine sensitivity vari-
ables. These variables are wind speed, water flow, solar irradiation,
five different converter sizes and diesel price. Fig. 9 shows opti-
mum solution for proposed system. The total NPC is $-1865. The
system consumes zero litre of diesel fuel per year and annual gener-
ator run time is also zero hours. Thus, the total cost incurred per
year for the proposed system is also zero. Solar PV penetration is
41% with 101,055 kWh/year of total production. The rest of the
load is supplied by wind and mini/micro hydro which is 64.7% with
159,416 kWh/year and 267% with 657,384 kWh /year respectively.
Fig. 10 shows the monthly average electric production of the system
which is totally produced by wind, mini/micro hydro and solar PV
standalone plants in conjunction in a wind-mini/micro hydro-solar
PV-diesel plant. Thus, there is no need of diesel generator for sup-

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plying critical loads as the load is fully served by three standalone

systems only.

6 CONCLUSION
The predicted net present cost (NPC) of different cases considered
is compared and are given in Table 6.
In case of without grid integration, wind diesel and solar PV
diesel plants are having more NPC due to large costs involved in

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construction of WTG sets, solar panels and absence of maximum

power point tracking techniques whereas in case of mini/micro hy-
dro diesel plant, all the system load is met by hydro plant alone.
This is on account of heavy rainfall and large production of electric
power generation and as a result, there is no need of diesel plant
at all. The NPC of standalone plants is more as compared to hy-
brid systems as shown in Table 6. All the hybrid plants overcome
limitations of standalone plants and thus, they can be efficiently
operated under hybrid mode.
In case of with grid integration, NPC of wind diesel and solar
PV diesel plants is much more due to addition of grid integration
but at the same time, NPC of mini/micro hydro solar PV diesel
plant decreases due to load leveling via grid integration.
Thus, it can be incurred that mini/micro hydro plant can be
served as peak power plant whereas solar PV/wind/diesel plants
in combination can serve as base load plant during summer and
winter seasons.
This optimization or feasibility study can be further extended to
grid integration issues and battery storage devices in conjunction.

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The results of this study can then be analyzed based on various

factors.

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[9] Kamal Kant Sharma, Balwinder Singh Review of Grid Integra-

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