Microgrid System Evaluation Using Capacity Factor For an Off-grid Community in Nigeria

Abstract

With the high rate of economic development, there is an increasing load demand even in rural communities and Obayantor in Nigeria. Obayantor, having zero connection to the primary grid, needs an alternative source of electricity. Following the community located in a tropical regoin of Nigeria, it has enough solar energy that could be harnessed for electricity generation. With the high price of diesel fuel, solar microgrid seems to be the best energy solution for the rural community. In this study, technical and economic analysis was carried out on the solar-based microgrid and compared with a diesel-only microgrid using MATLAB Software tool. The results showed that the solar microgrid was cost-effective and affordable for the rural community compared with the diesel microgrid, which is more expensive to afford. The Annual system cost for the solar microgrid was lower compared with the diesel source. The result also revealed that the diesel-alone microgrid system is 4.71 times and 0.2 times more costly than the solar-based microgrid system in terms of energy and Annualized System costs, respectively. This made the diesel microgrid not to have technical and economic feasibility for the community.