Grid-Independent Pv-Wind-Diesel Generator Hybrid Renewable Energy System For A Medium Population: A Case Study

Bringing electricity and power to the rural or no accessibility to grid connection has always been a major challenge in developing countries, such as Iraq. This study analysed the challenges of renewable energy sources for Al-Faw, a city located in Southern Iraq near the Kuwait border. Many remote areas in Iraq have randomly expanded in the past few years with the same generating stations and old network and the possibility of delivering electricity requires much time and money. A technical and economic feasibility study of the proposed hybrid systems was conducted using HOMER in consideration of cost of energy (COE), and net present cost (NPC) as economic indicators. Scenario 5 WT-DG-BT-Converters has the lowest COE and NPC values among all studied cases with 45.5% renewable energy penetration and is thus the most cost-effective design for Al-Faw. The results showed that the number of wind turbines (NWT), number of diesel generators (NDG), number of batteries (NBT), number of converters (Nconv), cost of energy (COE), net present cost (NPC), Operating cost, and initial cost (IC) are (449), (60), (5,697), (1,444), (0.1212 US$/kWh), (US$ 42.3 million), (2.62 million US$/year), and (US$ 12 million) respectively.