DOI: 10.36347/sjet.2024.v12i01.002

Pages: 19-27

Large numbers of households in isolated areas in Nigeria were reported to have lacking access to national grid. Their basic electricity demand is served through fossil fuel generators which are costly and environmentally unfriendly. The fact that extension of national grid lines to those areas becomes difficult, renewable energy resources exploitation is the best alternatives. Wind and solar energy as clean abundantly available resources could be harnessed in a hybrids form with long-term storage devices for enhancing energy optimization and power stability. This paper investigated the performance of Wind-PV-Fuel cell Hybrid Energy Systems for stand-alone application. The performances of Wind-Battery-Fuel cell and PV-Battery-Fuel cell Hybrid Energy Systems were investigated by using Hybrid Optimization Models for Energy Renewable (HOMER), through cycle charging controls. The techno-economic Figure of merits for the optimal configurations from these systems was compared. The results revealed that Wind-Battery-Fuel cell Hybrid had been the best system for serving4.37kWh/day (1595kWh/yr) residential load demand. The system was reported with 321 kWh/yr excess electricity, 8.59 kWh/y unmet load and 10.5 kWh/yr capacity shortage. While, the Net Present Cost (NPC), Operation and Maintenance Cost (O&MC) and Cost of Energy (COE) were $25,951, $185 /yr and $1.229/kWh respectively. The result of sensitivity analysis, predicted the unmet load and capacity shortage to be declined by 0.0% each, with system autonomy of 7.9 days. Meanwhile, the NPC, O&MC and COE have decreased by 24.6 %, 8.1 % and 25.06 % respectively. This analysis confirmed that Wind-Battery-Fuel cell-Hybrid Energy System could be an economically viable and technically feasible for stand-alone power supply for isolated areas.