Optimal and Economic Evaluation of a Stand-alone Microgrid for Electricity and Water Supply for Namibia’s Rural Village

Abstract

Stand-alone microgrid hold a primary solution for electricity and water supply in remote areas access to National grid is not possible. This paper presents a detailed optimal sizing and economic evaluations of a stand-alone microgrid for a remote village (Amarika) in Namibia. Several renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and photovoltaic arrays were considered with a battery backup storage system and a reverse osmosis desalination plant for water supply. Modelling of the microgrid was done based on the meteorological data, the daily water and energy demand of the village. Particle swarm optimization was employed for the system techno-economic optimization: to determine a suitable microgrid configuration that can be established at minimum cost. Sensitivity analysis of the system was performed to examine the effect of variation of LPSP on LCOE. The results demonstrate that the optimized microgrid configuration and the optimization algorithm are effective and can be adopted in supplying power and water to the village. The levelized cost of electricity proves the economic feasibility of the microgrid. The levelized cost of electricity falls within a 90% standard deviation (= 0.065) of the mean. This proved to be economically feasible with a 96.5% reliability of power supply.