Techno-Economic Analysis of Hybrid Renewable Energy System for Rural Electrification in India

This paper discusses a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) on basis of energy resources available for the location. The technical reliability and economic feasibility of HRES for a single household in an off-grid location is analyzed. The HRES modelled for the house constitutes a 100 percent renewable fraction and is proposed to serve a load demand of approximately 2.835 - 4.965 kWh/d over the three seasons. The results obtained reveal that HRES has the potential to overcome the issue of intermittent power and can balance load demand throughout the year by reducing unmet load and capacity shortage for the household at the same time being an economically feasible solution in terms of cost of energy studied over a projected lifespan of 25 years. This analysis is first of its kind in the state of Jharkhand, India and can be used as a framework to improve electricity infrastructure in electricity deprived communities.