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The energy efficient microgrid (MG) plays a vital role in electrifying the remote community. But the over/under sized MG resulted in high-cost or unreliable electricity. So, the optimal sizing of MG is implemented in this paper by identifying the optimal control strategy for the highly reliable solar PV/Battery/Diesel generator-based configuration. The negative impact of temperature on the performance of PV array is included in optimal sizing and the resulted changes in the capacity of MG components are estimated and presented. Also, the uncertainty of the design parameters is included in optimal sizing through the probabilistic approach and the distribution of optimal sizes for each MG components are presented to identify the size which provides highest reliability for sensitive applications. It is proved that additional 11% PV array capacity is required to compensate the power loss due to temperature effect but with the advantage of reduction in battery and converter size.

Isolated microgrid (MG) proved its potential to electrify the remote community through the cheaper and greener renewable energy alternatives with higher reliability than the weak grid. The goal of universal electricity access and the climate change mitigation paves the way for many public/private owned microgrids in remote areas. Having in mind various uncertainties associated with the design parameters of the MG (e.g., temperature, irradiation, load), this paper presents a probabilistic approach for optimal sizing and techno-economic assessment of the PV-based MG. The potential environmental impact of the isolated MG is taken into account by considering both, the PV/Battery, and more conventional PV/Battery/Diesel Generator configuration. The effectiveness of multi-year data over the single year data in the probabilistic approach is demonstrated. The probabilistic techno-economic analysis of different configurations facilitates informed decision making regarding the configuration and size of MG components while meeting the reliability of supply and environmental constraints. The feasibility and affordability of the configurations are demonstrated through the distribution of net present cost, levelized cost of energy and the unmet load percentage.