Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 374383

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Design, economic analysis and environmental considerations of mini-grid hybrid power system with reverse osmosis desalination plant for remote areas
Ahmad Agus Setiawan*, Yu Zhao, Chem. V. Nayar
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Available online 21 July 2008 Keywords: Hybrid system Reverse osmosis Economic analysis Emissions CO2 NOx Remote areas HOMER Emergency relief

a b s t r a c t
This paper discusses the design process of a mini-grid hybrid power system with reverse osmosis desalination plant for remote areas, together with an economic analysis and environmental considerations for the project life cycle. It presents a design scenario for supplying electricity and fullling demand for clean water in remote areas by utilising renewable energy sources and a diesel generator with a reverse osmosis desalination plant as a deferrable load. The economic issues analysed are the initial capital cost needed, the fuel consumption and annual cost, the total net present cost (NPC), the cost of electricity (COE) generated by the system per kWh and the simple payback time (SPBT) for the project. The environmental considerations discussed are the amount of gas emissions, such as CO2 and NOx, as well as particulate matter released into the atmosphere. Simulations based on an actual set of conditions in a remote area in the Maldives were performed using HOMER for two conditions: before and after the Tsunami of 26th December 2004. Experimental results on the prototype 5 kVA mini-grid inverter and reverse osmosis desalination plant, rated at 5.5 kWh/day, are also presented here to verify the idea of providing power and water supplies to remote areas. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Providing energy for a community, in a sustainable manner, nowadays has become a more and more important issue as we face global warming and climate change realities. Power generation engineers and designers have a responsibility to improve techniques of energy conversion in order to reduce emissions of CO2 and NOx, which are believed to be a source of environmental degradation. Harnessing renewable energy sources which are abundantly available in nature provides an opportunity to produce energy in an environmentally friendly way. There are many locations, especially in remote areas of developing countries, which have no access to a reliable power supply. This situation mainly is due to the geographical conditions of the areas, which make it uneconomic to build any connection to the existing power grid lines. Most of these areas rely on diesel generators for their power supply. However, this conventional generation depends on the availability of fossil fuel that usually is quite expensive. Beside that, the engines usually operate at low efciency due to the typical loads in remote areas that vary considerably during the day and night. Therefore, with an appropriate design, combining a reliable diesel generator with a renewable energy

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 61 892 661784; fax: 61 892 662584. E-mail address: setiawan@ieee.org (A.A. Setiawan). 0960-1481/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2008.05.014

generator can solve these economic and environmental problems to supply the energy demands for those particular areas in a sustainable way. In addition, there are plenty of opportunities for renewable energy applications in emergency relief conditions, for example, after the tsunami disaster that happened recently, as well as any other natural disaster (such as earthquake, volcanic eruption, etc.), which usually results in isolating affected areas, especially if it happens in a remote location. Most of these areas usually suffer from the destruction of their infrastructure such as power and water supplies. This paper presents a design process, economic analysis and environmental considerations of a mini-grid hybrid power system with reverse osmosis desalination plant for providing electricity and clean water supplies for remote areas. The design steps are presented for supplying electricity and clean water in remote areas by utilising renewable energy sources (wind and photovoltaic) and a diesel generator with a reverse osmosis desalination plant as a deferrable load. The economic analysis considers the initial capital cost needed, the fuel consumption and annual cost, the total net present cost and the cost of electricity generated by the system per kWh. Furthermore, the simple payback time (SPBT) calculation is also presented in order to show the project feasibility from an economic point of view. The environmental aspects analysed are the amount of gas emissions such as CO2 and NOx as well as particulate matter released into the atmosphere.

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Fig. 1. Series hybrid power system conguration.

Simulations based on the actual conditions in a remote area of the Maldives were performed using HOMER, for two conditions: before and after the Tsunami of 26th December 2004. Experimental works on prototypes of a 5 kVA mini-grid inverter and a reverse osmosis desalination plant, rated at 5.5 kWh/day, have been completed and the results are also presented here to verify the idea of providing power and water supplies to remote areas.

2. Hybrid power system There is a huge potential for utilising renewable energy sources, for example solar energy, wind energy or micro hydropower, to provide a quality power supply to remote areas. The abundant energy available in nature can be harnessed and converted to electricity in a sustainable way to supply the necessary power to

elevate the living standards of people without access to the electricity grid. The advantages of using renewable energy sources for generating power in remote areas are obvious: the cost of transported fuel is often prohibitive, and there is increasing concern about fossil fuels and the issues of climate change and global warming. The disadvantage of stand-alone power systems using renewable energy is that the availability of renewable energy sources has daily and seasonal patterns which result in difculties in regulating the output power to cope with the load demand. Combining renewable energy generation with conventional diesel power generation will enable the power generated from renewable energy sources to be more reliable and affordable. This kind of electric power generation system, which consists of renewable energy and fossil fuel generators together with an energy storage system and power conditioning system, is known as a hybrid power system [5].

Fig. 2. Parallel hybrid power system conguration.

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Fig. 3. AC coupling of parallel hybrid power system.

A hybrid power system has the ability to provide 24-h grid quality electricity to the load. This system offers better efciency, exibility of planning and environmental benets compared to the diesel generator stand-alone system. The usual maintenance costs of a diesel generator can be decreased as a consequence of improving the efciency of operation and reducing the operational time, which also means less fuel usage. Furthermore, the system provides an opportunity for expanding its capacity in order to cope with increasing demand in the future. This can be done by increasing either the rated power of the diesel generator, renewable generator or both. The hybrid power systems which utilize renewable energy generators can be classied into two basic congurations: series hybrid system and parallel hybrid system. 2.1. Series hybrid power system In a series hybrid system conguration, as shown in Fig. 1, power generated by a diesel generator, wind generator and solar
20 18 16 14

PV array are used to charge a battery bank. The inverter will convert the DC power stored in the battery bank to AC, at a standard level of voltage and frequency, and then supply it to the load. Battery charging can be controlled either by controlling the excitation of the alternator or by utilising wind/solar charger regulators that can prevent overcharging of the battery bank from the wind/PV generators when the renewable power exceeds the load demand and when the batteries are fully charged.

Load (kW)

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23

Hours
Fig. 4. Estimated daily load prole for a remote area in the Maldives after the tsunami. Fig. 5. Mini-grid hybrid power system with RO plant conguration.

A.A. Setiawan et al. / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 374383 Table 1 Economic analysis results from HOMER simulation Parameter Before tsunami Diesel only Initial capital cost Total net present cost Cost of electricity ($/kWh) Annual fuel consumed (L) Annual fuel cost $57,600 $709,055 $0.510 55,494 $35,516 After tsunami PV-diesel $165,900 $646,359 $0.447 40,919 $26,188 Wind-diesel $185,900 $632,159 $0.437 37,247 $23,838 PV/wind-diesel $209,900 $635,386 $0.439 35,252 $22,561

377

Table 2 Simple payback time calculations Parameter Initial cost Annual fuel cost SPBT in years Diesel only $57,600 $35,516 PV-diesel $165,900 $26,188 11.6 Wind-diesel $185,900 $23,838 11 PV/wind-diesel $209,900 $22,561 11.8

Fig. 7. Energy management in hybrid system.

2.2. Parallel hybrid power system In a parallel hybrid system conguration, as shown in Fig. 2, the diesel generator and renewable energy generator supply a portion of the load demand directly. This system utilises a bi-directional inverter, which is operated in parallel with the diesel generator and can act as an inverter and rectier/battery charger. The design principles of this system are relatively complicated but it has superiority compared to the series conguration; for example, the system load in this conguration can be met in the most optimal way, the diesel efciency can be maximized and there are possible reductions in the capacities of diesel, battery and renewable energy generators while meeting the load peaks. The parallel hybrid power system, shown in Fig. 2, is a DC coupling conguration where the renewable energy generators are connected to a battery bank through the DC bus and supply AC load through the bi-directional inverter. This conguration can further be improved by connecting all of the renewable generators to the AC bus to perform an AC coupling conguration, as shown in Fig. 3. Since this parallel topology has advantages regarding the controllability of the system, only this topology is considered for the design of a mini-grid hybrid power system in this paper [1]. 3. Design procedures and simulation There are a number of issues that should be considered in designing a mini-grid hybrid power system: power demand topology, cost of fuel in the particular area, availability of the renewable energy resources, initial cost of the project including cost of each component needed, project life time, interest rate, subsidization of scheme, etc. Comparison analysis on the diesel-only system (which is the common case for an autonomous power generation system in remote areas), with the proposed hybrid system can be performed to observe the feasibility of the design project [7]. For this project, we selected one of the remote islands in the Maldives which, after the tsunami disaster, now is populated by approximately 300 people. Before tsunami, power supply was maintained by operating two diesel generators with capacities of 40 kW and 32 kW. According to the Island Development Committee (IDC), the inuential authority in the island that makes decisions on island development including electrication, the estimated load distribution for the post-tsunami day is shown as in Fig. 4. This primary load has an annual average of 298 kWh/day with an annual peak of 37.4 kW [8]. In the simulation, in order to provide a consumable water supply, a reverse osmosis desalination plant was chosen as a deferrable load to the system. The RO plant should be capable of supplying 5 m3 of fresh water per day. This system consumes

Table 3 Pollutants emitted from the power systems Parameter CO2 (kg/yr) CO (kg/yr) UHC (kg/yr) PM (kg/yr) SO2 (kg/yr) NOx (kg/yr) Diesel only 146,135 361 40 27.2 293 3,219 PV-diesel 107,753 266 29.5 20.1 216 2,373 Wind-diesel 107,753 266 29.5 20.1 216 2,373 PV/wind-diesel 98,829 229 25.4 17.3 186 2,045

Table 4 Percentage of energy production Parameter Diesel PV Wind Diesel efciency Water supply Diesel only 100% 0 0 21.9% No PV-diesel 86% 14% 0 30.5% Yes Wind-diesel 80% 0 20% 30.4% Yes PV/wind-diesel 76% 4% 20% 30.4% Yes

Fig. 6. Equivalent circuit diagram of hybrid system.

This conguration results in relatively simple implementation but it has some drawbacks, such as: low overall efciency, requirement for a large battery bank to limit the depth-of-discharge, and limited control of the diesel alternator since the system is based on the level of charge in the battery rather than the site load.

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Fig. 10. Efciency of the 5 kVA mini-grid inverter.

power demands including a reverse osmosis desalination plant are supplied by using a mini-grid hybrid power system with several topology options: PV/diesel, wind/diesel and PV/wind/diesel. The economic analysis results obtained from the simulation for the project period of 20 years are presented in Table 1. We can calculate the simple payback time (SPBT), from Table 1 above, using the simple formulation below (Eq. (1)), and the results are presented in Table 2 [9,10]. As can be seen, the simple payback times for the hybrid systems are 11.6 years, 11 years, and 11.8 years for PV-Diesel, Wind-Diesel, and PV/Wind-Diesel, respectively.

SPBT
Fig. 8. Prototype of 5 kVA mini-grid inverter.

Excess Cost of hybrid system Rate of saving

(1)

2.5 kW of power and needs to be operated for 8 h per day. A fresh water tank is designed to have storage capacity for two days demand. So, there will be a 20 kWh/day average deferrable load with 40 kWh storage capacities. For both analytical and simulation purposes, we need to have appropriate data on renewable energy availability for a certain period of time. In this preliminary study case, they were obtained from the Maldives government and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA [2,6]. With all necessary inputs collected, we then carried out the simulation on this particular hybrid power system modelling, using HOMER, to nd the best conguration [4,3]. The resultant system conguration for the mini-grid hybrid system is shown in Fig. 5. Simulations were performed for two conditions: before and after the tsunami. Before the tsunami, the power generator consists of two diesel generators, 40 kW and 32 kW. After the tsunami,

From the simulation, we can also obtain the levels of emitted pollutants to the environment. It shows the total amount of emissions produced annually by the power systems. These emissions are a by-product of the energy conversion processes, mainly occurring in the diesel generator from fuel combustion. There are six pollutants as simulation outputs: carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx); and they are presented in Table 3. In addition, the percentages of energy production from each system are presented in Table 4, together with diesel operative efciency and supply of water capability. From all of the simulation results above (Tables 14), we can reveal that even though the diesel-only system has the least initial capital cost, it results in the highest total net present cost for the whole project, it emits more pollutant into the atmosphere, and the diesel system operates at low efciency (21.9%). The hybrid systems utilising renewable energy generators offer a better economic feasibility, lower emissions and the component diesel generator

Fig. 9. Experimental setup for mini-grid inverter.

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Fig. 11. (a) Voltage and current waveforms, and (b) power output.

Fig. 12. THD for (a) voltage output, and (b) current output.

Fig. 13. Overload handling capability at 150% rated load.

operates at a higher efciency (above 30%) which ensures a longer operation lifetime. Payback time for the hybrid systems is also quite attractive with an average of 11.5 years in the 20-year period of the project. In addition, the hybrid system topologies also provide a fresh water supply as needed by people living in this particular remote area.

4. Prototype experimental results Laboratory experiments on the prototype 5 kVA mini-grid inverter and reverse osmosis desalination plant rated at 5.51 kWh/ day were performed and the results are presented here to verify the idea of providing power and water supplies to remote areas.

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mode to provide a certain level of voltage and frequency output. When the load increases and the inverter is not capable of providing the supply of power any longer, the diesel generator is operated to cover the load demand, and the excess of the energy is used to charge the battery in CCVSI mode. Fig. 8 shows the prototype of a 5 kVA inverter which acts as a power conditioner for the mini-grid hybrid system, and Fig. 9 shows the experimental setup in the control room. The results of efciency testing for various loading on the prototype 5 kVA mini-grid inverter are presented in Fig. 10, which shows the efciency operation at 90% for a full load condition. The inverter produces sinusoidal voltage and current output waveforms, as shown in Fig. 11, with small harmonics distortion (1.1% THD) as shown in Fig. 12. Additionally, overloading test results are presented in Fig. 13, which shows the capability of the prototype inverter in handling this situation for various changing loads. Fig. 14 shows the voltage regulation by the inverter for a 0150% step load change.
Fig. 14. Voltage regulation at 150% step load.

4.2. Reverse osmosis desalination plant 4.1. Prototype of mini-grid inverter A power conditioning unit is the heart of the hybrid energy system mentioned in the previous section. A bi-directional inverter that can act both as inverter and charger is based on a voltage source inverter (VSI). VSIs have DC input voltage as the source and produce sinusoidal output voltage. During the inverting process the inverter is operated to supply power with constant voltage, thus it is operated in Voltage-Controlled VSI (VCVSI) mode. During the charging process the inverter is operated in Current-Controlled VSI (CCVSI) mode to ensure constant current to charge the battery bank. Fig. 6 shows the equivalent circuit diagram of the hybrid system where the inverter is operated in parallel with the diesel generator to supply the load. As shown in Fig. 7, during a low load period, power demand is supplied by inverting energy from the battery bank through VCVSI The experimental works on the RO system were rst performed by conducting preliminary testing on the system prototype. Then, based on these preliminary data, the system was modelled and the mathematical formulation was derived. After that simulation was performed using MATLAB-SIMULINK. Finally, the simulation results were compared with the experimental results to verify accuracy of the system modelling. Using the MATLAB data tting function, a mathematical expression was derived from the preliminary test (Fig. 15) that was conducted on the RO unit and formulated as:
3 2 Yp 0:0002X1 0:0037X1 0:0824X1 0:000071X2 0:98

(2)

where, Yp is the permeate ow rate, l/min; X1 is the motor frequency, Hz; X2 is the feed water conductivity, ppm.

1.2

Inlet Flow Rate of the Product Tank (L/m)

1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4

8 Su 5 56 4 pp 5 2 ly 5 0 Po 5 8 4 6 we 4 4 rF req 4 42 0 4 5 ue 3 0 nc 3 5 y( 2 0 He 2 rtz ) 60

8000 5000 6000 7000

9000

10000

3000

4000

Fee

dW

ater

Co

cti ndu

vity

(ppm

Fig. 15. Product water ows corresponding to the motor frequency and feed water conductivity.

Input Water Flow Rate 16points

Motor Input Frequency 16points

Inlet Flow Rate of the Product Tank

-KGain

Water consumption Flow Rate Water Capacity

4000 Feed Water Conductivity

Conductivity of feed water 650 Initial Water Capacity Initial Water Capacity

Frequency Scaling

Reverse Osmosis Unit

Product WaterTank

0 Water Consumption Water Demands Power Consumption Water Capacity Motor Frequency Motor Frequency Product Water Flow Rate Subsystem PID Controller Power Consumption Calculation Energy Calculation Transient Power Total Energy Feed Water Conductivity Power Consumption Display

power To Workspace

0 Total Energy Consumed kWh

Scope1 Water Capacity Motor Frequency Mode Switch Toggle Control 0 Total Water Product Product Water Totalization Total water amount Product flow

Fig. 16. SIMULINK block diagram model for RO system.

0.23 0.22

Power Consumption (kW)

0.21 0.2 0.19 0.18 0.17 0.16 0.15 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Time of a day (second)

Fig. 17. Transient power consumption over 24 h.

x 104

Water level in the product tank (%)

0.66 0.64 0.62 0.6 0.58 0.56 0.54 0.52 0.5 0.48 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Time of a day (second)

Fig. 18. Water level in the product tank over 24 h.

x 104

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0.25

Power consumption (kW)

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

7 x105

Time of a week (second)

Fig. 19. Transient power consumption over 7 days (one week).

0.9

Water level in the product tank (%)

0.85 0.8 0.75 0.7 0.65 0.6 0.55 0.5 0.45 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Time of a week (second)

Fig. 20. Water level in the product tank over 7 days (one week).

x105

More explicitly, Fig. 15 reveals the water productivity of the RO system under different feed stream conditions, such as conductivity and pressure. It can be observed that the product water ow is higher when the motor frequency is higher and the feed water salinity is lower. Furthermore, the output water ow does not increase signicantly as the motor augments beyond 40 Hz. A SIMULINK model of the RO unit was created in accordance with the membrane characteristic that was already obtained (Eq. (2)). A PID controller was designed and modelled, as presented in Fig. 16.

With an initial water level setting at 50% of the product tank, the simulations were carried out over both a 24-h and a 7-day period of time. Simulation results on the RO system are presented in Figs. 17 20. It was found that the tanks water level stayed at above 60% most of the time, as seen in Fig. 20. The RO plant has an additional

Table 5 Simulation results on RO system productivity and energy consumption Feed water conductivity (ppm) 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 Water productivity over 24 h (l) 1339 1237 1135 1033 930.4 828.3 726.1 623.9 521.7 Energy consumption over 24 h (kWh) 3.939 3.936 3.851 3.959 4.078 3.886 3.824 3.75 3.818

Fig. 21. Schematic diagram of the RO experimental unit.

A.A. Setiawan et al. / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 374383 Table 6 Experimental results on the RO system productivity and energy consumption Feed water conductivity (ppm) 4000 System operation time (h) 24 Total energy consumption (kWh) 5.51

383

Water consumption (l) 1058

power system can provide both power and water supplies with better performance, both economically and environmentally viable, compared to the stand-alone diesel system. Laboratory experiment results on the prototype 5 kVA mini-grid inverter and reverse osmosis desalination plant, rated at 5.51 kWh/day, were also presented in this paper to demonstrate the feasibility of providing reliable power and water supplies to remote areas.
Fig. 22. Photograph of the measurement systems on the experimental beds.

Acknowledgements feature of energy saving with a proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller that monitors the demand and regulates the motor speed accordingly, as shown in Fig. 19. Simulation results on water productivity and energy consumption for the reverse osmosis desalination plant are presented in Table 5. It is shown that both the system productivity and energy needed by the system vary accordingly in respect to the feed water conductivity. The most productive performance by the RO system occurs at the lowest feed water conductivity. A prototype reverse osmosis desalination plant rated at 5.51 kWh/day was built and tested. The schematic diagram for the RO unit experimental system is shown in Fig. 21 and a photograph of the measurement systems on the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 22. Experiments on the RO unit were conducted over 24 h for the expected real situation feed water conductivity condition of 4000 ppm. Experimental data were collected and presented in Table 6. It was noticed that the power consumption of the RO unit was higher than the one obtained from the simulation result. This may have been caused by the turbulence of the transient conditions in the experiment, such as the temperature variations. However, in general, the experimental result is still within the range of expected power coverage by the mini-grid hybrid power system and thus the system modelling can be justied. 5. Conclusions This paper presents a design scenario to provide a reliable supply of power and water to meet demands for remote areas and emergency relief conditions. A simulation has been performed to nd the optimum conguration for a hybrid power system by utilising HOMER software from NREL-USA. It is shown that a hybrid The authors would like to thank Curtin University of Technology and industry partner Regen Power Pty Ltd, Australia, for providing test facilities for this project. The rst author would like to acknowledge the Australian Development Scholarships for providing support to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Curtin University of Technology (Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies Australia, CRESTA). References
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