Optimization of the renewable-energy-based micro-grid for rural electrification in northern region of India

• Published in: Clean technologies and environmental policy Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 579 - 590
• Main Authors: Maqbool, Umar, Tyagi, Arjun, Tyagi, V. V., Kothari, Richa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-04-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alternative energy sources; Biomass; Biomass energy production; Distributed generation; Earth and Environmental Science; Electric power grids; Electrical loads; Electricity consumption; Electricity distribution; Electrification; Energy conservation; Energy costs; Energy output; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Environmental impact; Environmental policy; Hybrid systems; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Optimization; Original Paper; Photovoltaic cells; Regions; Renewable energy; Renewable resources; Rural areas; Rural population; Solar energy; Standard of living; Supply & demand; Sustainable Development; Sustainable yield; India; Kashmir India; Micro-grid; Biomass generation; Decentralized generation; Hybrid renewable energy systems; Rural electrification; PV generation
• ISSN: 1618-954X; 1618-9558
• DOI: 10.1007/s10098-019-01801-1

Most of the Indian rural area is electrified now, but the gap between supply and demand is much greater and increasing due to rapid industrial growth and increase in rural as well as urban living standards. That cause the extra burden on power grid. In order to reduce the burden on the national grid, India is moving fast towards distributed generation, and various studies show that renewable-based micro-grid is a preeminent alternative for decentralized energy generation. Most of the Indian population live in rural areas with access to wide varieties of alternative energy sources (wind, solar, hydro, biomass, etc.). Therefore, to reduce the dependency on heavily loaded power grid, a hybrid renewable energy system is required by utilizing the locally available sources, which incorporates more than one source of energy by combining the benefits and strength of one source to complement each other. This paper proposed a PV-Biomass-Grid-based optimal micro-grid system, based on locally available resources in Kashmir region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. In the proposed micro-grid, load is served on the basis of priorities to employ minimum burden on the grid and increase the use of renewable resources. The overall goal of the study is to minimize the cost of energy and maximize the energy output from hybrid renewable energy system. Extra electricity generated beyond the load demand would be supplied to grid. In this way, system energy cost is reduced with improvement in electrical system and reducing the environmental impact.
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