Project proposal design of a hybrid power system Free Essay Example

INTRODUCTION

In 2012, 1.2 billion of the world population have no access to electricity according to the Global Tracking Framework published by the World Bank with 80% of the population living in rural areas, mainly in Asia and Africa.According to World Bank in 2016, 59.3% of the population in Nigeria has access to electricity (HEALTH CARE CENTER IN RURAL AREA. AC DURING THE DAY AND FAN AT NIGHT EXCEPT FOR CONSULTING ROOM) the massive success towards rural electrification that were made over past years in the developing counties, there is still a lot to improve upon.

Access to electricity is a very important factor for social development, public health problems tackling. There is a record of about 1 million people who die every year from respiratory diseases due to combustion of solid fuel. Developing countries face the challenge of supplying electricity to remote area. Two options could be considered: get connection from an existing grid or design a local micro-grid. The later choice is the most appropriate for remote areas where getting a grid connection would be complicate, unreliable and expensive.

Many remote locations are connected to micro-grid and they are powered by diesel or gas generator sets most of the time. Hybrid power plant of renewable energy sources and energy storage system are often appropriate due to below reasons Firstly, the drastic drop in the prices of battery makes them more affordable and competitive.Also, integrating renewable energy sources into microgrid projects makes it more reliable and can reduce genset penetration gradually. Secondly, microgrid that are powered by fossil fuel are 100% dependent in Their integration to micro-grid projects also makes intermittent renewable energy sources more reliable and can therefore reduce the genset penetration.

Secondly, fossil fuel powered micro-grids are 100% dependent on fuel supply and prices. Diesel price fluctuations have therefore a major impact on local access to electricity. Moreover, the fuel security and reliability of supply may depend very much on weather conditions and are a very big concern in unstable countries where fuel delivery sometimes requires a military escort. Hybrid power plants allowing a reduced fossil fuel penetration appear therefore to be a better solution for providing electricity in remote locations. Design of hybrid power plants for isolated systems is quite new business and many attempts failed over the last decades due to a certain lack of experience. Before considering tricky micro-grid regulation issues the overall design has to be done in terms of configuration (PV plant, wind turbines, hydro resources, biomass power plant, battery system, diesel genset, gas genset) and management strategy ensuring the reliability and optimization of the overall system.

This task requires more than just relying on rules of thumbs in order to define a proper design; and a hybrid power plant computational model must be built and analyzed. This model will enable the designer in charge to test configurations and run many simulations to decide which one is the best according to predefined relevant criteria such as the cost of electricity, the grid reliability, the fuel consumption, etc. The abovementioned approach is practically applied in this study referring to the specific case of a hybrid micro-grid project in a remote Malaysian village. The first part introduces the study case and the assumptions made on the local power demand and the available solar resources (no other renewable energy resources were considered). Then, the computational model is presented, including details about each one of its components and the way it works when a simulation is run. Third, the simulation process is described: four scenarios are defined and a methodology is identified to define optimal configurations for each scenario. Finally the results are comparedTHE power sector is without doubt mired in absolute despair. There is scarcely any hope that it will be pulled out of the quicksand, and this happens to be the official position. Nigeria has been ranked as the second worst nation in power supply. The Spectator Index stated this in its recent report.

According to the report, which came out just as power generation in the country plummeted to 3,851 megawatts (Mw), the country is only better than Yemen in the league of nations.Out of the 137 countries examined in the report, Nigeria ranked 136th. It was closely followed by Haiti, Lebanon and Malawi. Ethiopia was ranked in the 37th position while South Africa and Algeria occupied the 41st and 45th positions respectively. Although the capacity of the national grid stands at 4000 Mw, it very rarely reaches that level because the transmission capacity cannot handle it. The report noted that the average power sent out by the Generating Companies (GENCOs) on 14th January stood at 3851.06 Mw. It added that the peak power generation averaged 4,425 Mw, down by 5.5 per cent. Against this dismal background, the Minster of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola’s recent admission that his ministry did not spend a dime on any project last year should be viewed with the seriousness that it deserves.In the power sector, it normally takes a minimum of 24 months for returns on investment to manifest as social benefits. If the Power Ministry has not spent a dime now, it can only be because the Federal Government was never serious about remedying the situation in the power sector in the first place, at least for the remainder of this dispensation.

Nigeria will remain in darkness”no metaphor intended”for quite a long time before any manifestation of a remedy. And from the premise that the country’s economic emancipation is predicated on improvement in the power sector, this means that manufacturers and the real sector generally will remain in limbo for a long time. Any hope that the economy might improve has just been cruelly dashed. This clearly exemplifies both lack of vision and incompetence.It simply rankles to think of all the humongous investments made in the power sector, especially by past administrations. There is simply no reason for it to remain as poor as this. Sadly, from the attitude and body language of the current administration, there are no plans to improve the power sector despite the dire situation. Dismal as the Spectator Index may be, it is already in the past. The future is more important and we think it is imperative to get serious about it and act as if the lives of the future generations depended on what could be done to salvage the situation. But Fashola’s revelations suggest that all hopes for the future are buried already.

The government has not spent a dime on re-energizing the dilapidated infrastructure.It is virtually impossible to envision any kind of development for the people without adequate power generation, transmission and distribution. It is an obvious embarrassment that the largest country in Africa remains in the backwaters, but it is even more horrendous that the administration is not bothered about the implications. The country will remain a hostile economic environment in which progress and development will be impossible and its potential for greatness will remain unrealised. It may be unrealistic to imagine that the redemption of the power sector can be a once and for all project. Gradually, though, the onerous challenges can eventually be surmounted. The place to start is the improvement of the distribution cables to facilitate efficient transmission, in readiness for improved generation.The crude infrastructure in the power sector is a disgrace.

Surely, the country’s leadership ought to feel disconcerted about the implications.( Jan 21, 2018)Against the background of the seemingly intractable power supply problem, the disclosure, the other day, by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, that 90 million Nigerians lack electricity supply is not surprising. This is an indictment of the government and a clarion call on that same government as well as other stakeholders to do something urgently about the wobbling electricity supply situation in the country.Of course, the question must be asked of how Fashola got his figure, using what measurement. Since 1999, all the efforts and resources sunk into the electricity sector have proven a colossal waste to the extent that little has changed.Ninety million people represent over 50 per cent of the population of Nigeria. Without real research and a reliable national database on anything, knowing how many citizens are denied electricity can only be by guesswork.Truth, however, is that more Nigerians lack electricity than can be imagined. People suffer in silence without complaining.

The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) that has the responsibility to address complaints and protect the people is unknown to most people and there is hardly any sensitization to that effect.Fashola’s submission corroborates the explanation given by the Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), Mrs. Winnifred Oyo Ita, who, while commissioning a 60 MVA, 132/33 Power Transformer recently in Calabar the other day, said that Nigeria still suffers epileptic power supply because the power distributing companies (DISCOs), have no capacity for effective distribution of electricity generated by the generation companies.According to her, there is huge investment in the power sector all over the country but so far as the DISCOs are not investing to improve their distribution capacity, such that they are able to send out this power to the end users, Nigerians will not appreciate the large volume of money being invested in power generation.She said the commissioning of the power station was in line with the policy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on incremental power supply through transmission rehabilitation and expansion programme to strengthen grid and infrastructure for enhanced capacity.

Fashola on his own part, made his remarks while delivering a keynote address at the annual international conference of the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL), University of Ibadan (UI).Speaking on the theme, “Developing Renewable Energy in Africa: The Interplay of Technology, Economics and Law”, Fashola said “Africans have trillions standard cubic feet (SCFs) of natural gas reserves, billions of barrels of crude oil reserves and billions of tonnes of coal; but Africa has even greater abundance of renewal energy resources.Unfortunately, of the nearly 1.5 billion people estimated to lack electricity supply the world over, half are in Africa. Nigeria alone is estimated to have over 90 million people living without electricity supply, according to the World Bank.”He noted that to make electricity available to all Nigerians, efforts must be concentrated on developing renewable energy along with conventional power plants to maintain a balanced energy in the short, medium and long-term.Fashola said renewable energies were the fastest power plants that can be deployed as the technologies required are compatible with what he described as the nation’s decentralized, stand-alone ideal for local, rural communities.That being the case, why then has focus not shifted to renewable energy that is in super abundance in the country? Why is effort still being expended on gas-powered plants that have proven less than ideal?

That lack of electricity is one major problem confronting Nigeria is not in doubt. How to find a lasting solution has defied even the best of intentions. Fixing the problem has remained a problem and this is lamentable.The move to privatize the sector for efficiency and effectiveness brought in the GENCOs and DISCOs that have now turned out to worsen the situation.The explanation being given by the Federal Government that the DISCOs lack the capacity to deliver to consumers amounts to self-indictment. How did government engage companies with no capacity?Since it is now obvious that the private electricity companies cannot perform what does government intend to do?It was for that reason that a man like Fashola, who demonstrated extraordinary brilliance and capacity for hardwork as governor in Lagos State was made Minister of Power, Works and Housing to tackle the problem. No doubt, he is doing his bit.

There is no need for him, however, to remind Nigerians of the already known awful state of power supply. What Nigerians want to hear is what has been done to improve the situation.It is needless lamenting. The fact is that Nigeria is facing a precarious electricity situation that needs to be fixed. The import of fixing it cannot be overemphasized since economic growth and development squarely depend on constant power supply.After knowing the number of people who lack electricity, what is the government doing about it?A number of things have not been properly situated. The pre-paid meter that was supposed to be installed for consumers has become a burden. Most consumers are yet to get it while outrageous bills are still being issued recklessly. Besides, the electricity distribution infrastructure is poor and decrepit.Meanwhile, given the failures that are glaring in all sectors of the economy, federalism remains the only solution. Decentralisation of the power sector as well as other sectors would bring about the desired turnaround.Nigeria needs salvation. And that salvation can only be found in running a proper federal structure in Nigeria.Number of solar system that failed cos of design