Study of a solar pv/wind/diesel hybrid power system for a remotely located population near Arar, Saudi Arabia

Different hybrid configurations of wind, photovoltaic (PV), and diesel systems for a village in the north-eastern region of Saudi Arabia are presented. The configurations (i) diesel only, (ii) wind-diesel, (iii) PV-diesel, and (iv) wind-PV-diesel power generation systems are designed and compared to select the optimal alternative system by considering the minimum cost of energy and least environmental impact. For sizing and optimizing the hybrid power systems, local hourly average wind speed, hourly total solar radiation, and hourly load data have been used as input. Of the four configurations investigated, the diesel only system is found to be most cost effective with an energy cost of 0.037 US$/kWh with a fuel cost of 0.067 US$/l. Among the hybrid power systems, the PV-diesel hybrid system with 1,500 kW PV capacity, equal inverter capacity, and four diesel generators each of 1120 kW capacity are found to the most economical solution with a COE of 0.038 US$/kWh.