System components and Tools

 
Standalone hybrid generation system for the remote area of Thar, Pakistan
 
 
 
CHAPTER 2: Background Research 
Remote rural areas, especially in developing countries, are in great need of affordable and reliable 
electricity to achieve development. Likewise, an overview through the most important literature on 
rural electrification proves that RESs are one of the most suitable and environmentally friendly 
solutions to provide electricity within rural areas. Autonomous decentralized (off-grid) rural 
electrification based on the generation of renewable power on the site through the installation of 
stand-alone power systems in rural households, and the set-up of electricity distribution mini-grids, 
fed by RES or mixed ones, have been proven for being capable of delivering high quality and reliable 
electricity for lighting, communication, water supply and motive power, among others. Using RESs 
have many advantages over conventional sources. Some of the advantages of using RESs are [3]:
- 
Gain an immediate access to reliable electricity at any time
- 
Avoid long waits for grid extension and permit the connection it comes
- 
Reduce the dependency from oil price fluctuations
- 
Reduce the transportation costs of fuels
- 
Improve health care and reduction in rural areas
- 
Increase economic productivity and create local employment opportunities
- 
Fight climate change and poverty
- 
Allow for a better use of local natural resources
Off-grid renewable energy technologies satisfy energy demand directly and avoid the need for long 
distribution infrastructures. Hybrid systems can provide a steady community-level electricity service, 
such as village electrification, offering also the possibility to be upgraded through grid connection in 
the future. Hybrid systems with a backup Genset run with minimal fuel consumption because the 
Genset is brought on line only to assist in periods of high loads or low renewable power availability. 
This in turn results in a large reduction in fuel consumption as compared to a Genset only powered 
system. Furthermore, due to their high levels of efficiency, reliability and long-term performance, 
these systems can also be used as an effective backup solution to the public grid in case of blackouts 
or weak grids, and for professional energy solutions, such as telecommunication stations or 
emergency rooms at hospitals [3].
The main disadvantage of wind turbines and PV-systems is that naturally variable wind speed and 
variable solar irradiation cause voltage and power fluctuation problems at the load side. Using 
appropriate power converters and control strategies can solve these problems. Another significant 
point is to store the energy generated by wind turbines and PV-systems for future use when no wind 
and/or no irradiation is available but the user demand exists. For this, an energy storage bank can be 
incorporated in such a way that the battery stores energy whenever there is excess supply and 
discharges (or supplies the load) when there is more demand than supply. Successful results have 
already been obtained with hybrid systems worldwide. Rural communities without hope to be 
connected to the public grid (at least not in the medium term), lacking resources to keep up with the 
fuel prices or with unused diesel infrastructures, have found on hybrid systems the most suitable, 
environmentally friendly and cost competitive solution for power delivery. To mention some [4]:
Reference [4, 5] presents a hybrid configuration comprising of a wind–diesel system originally 
developed by the Hydro-Quebec, aimed at reducing the cost of electricity supply in remote areas. The 
two main blocks of the system presented are, diesel- driven synchronous generator and the wind 

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