2017

Pre-feasibility assessment of rural

electrification for Imogoro Village –
Papua New Guinea.
PROJECT 02
WILSON MONDO (33225633)
Project_S2 Due_Date: 27 October 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 2

2 CURRENT ENERGY SITUATION ............................................................................... 4

2.1 TECHNOLOGICAL ...................................................................................................... 5

2.2 ENVIRONMENTAL ..................................................................................................... 5
2.3 ECONOMIC ................................................................................................................ 5
2.4 SOCIAL ..................................................................................................................... 6

3 ENERGY DEMAND ........................................................................................................ 6

4 RESOURCES AVAILABILITY ..................................................................................... 7

5 PROPOSED PLAN TO ELECTRIFY THE AREA...................................................... 8

5.1 SYSTEM COMPONENTS ............................................................................................. 8

5.2 OPTIMIZATION RESULTS ......................................................................................... 10
5.3 OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE .......................................................................... 11

6 IMPACT (SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL)........................................ 12

7 DISADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS ................................................................. 13

8 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ............................................................ 13

9 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 15

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1 Introduction
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a country with an estimated population of 8 million (Review,
2017), with 85% of population living in the rural areas. Electricity access in the rural areas is
estimated to be under 4%. PNG is participating in the global initiative, which seeks to
provide energy access to all by 2030, and the country has an aim to fulfil that by access to
70% of its population (DNPM, 2010).

Rigo District (Figure 1Figure 1) is one of the remotest district located in the Central Province Formatte

of Papua New Guinea. People of Rigo suffer from inconvenience due to poor government
services of the area, particularly with the road, water and lighting for especially the rural
villages. Rigo District has 65 towns and villages. Imogoro Village which is the project site,
is one of the rural villages, located at -9.875686S, 147.680613E (Figure 2Figure 2) and Formatte

altitude 137m good!. An unsealed road link to the district is approx. 10 km away and
further 80 km to urban town is sealed. National electricity grid is not present in Imogoro
Village and chances of extending them is also bleak in the near future, because of limited
long-distance transmission system, highly dispersed with a low population density, low load
density and low revenues. So, Imogoro Village is an ideal place for application of
Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs).

This paper focuses on proposing rural electrification solutions considering hybrid energy
systems for Imogoro Village. A hybrid power system is defined as an off-grid electric
power generator system comprising of more than one energy generation source and the end-
use energy is basically electricity (Fara et al., 2006). Adverse environmental effect such as
greenhouse gas emission, global warming, climate change, etc. has promoted focus on
renewable energy generation like solar, wind, and hydro. In recent years, application of
renewable energy sources for electrification is becoming economically feasible due to rapid
development of relevant technologies.
Key questions to guide along the assessment of this project;

 Is the hybrid renewable energy project viable?

 Is the hybrid renewable energy project the best option compared to other
possibilities?

Note: For the assessment, HOMER 4 software is used.

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Figure 1 Satellite View of Project Location in the country of Papua New Guinea, north of Queensland, Australia.

Figure 2 Satellite View of the project proposed site, Imogoro Village in Rigo District, Central Province, Papua New
Guinea.

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2 Current Energy Situation

Initially, a KAP survey was conducted early August 2017 by the University of Papua New
Guinea, Centre of Renewable Energy, a key stakeholder for the project. The KAP survey is
conducted to collect information on the knowledge (i.e. what is known), attitudes (i.e. what is
thought), and practices (i.e. what is done) about energy services from three different villages
in the Rigo District of Papua New Guinea. Information is collected by interviewers through
a structured, standardized questionnaire that include both quantitative and qualitative data.
During the KAP survey, following purpose were stressed by the Project Steering Committee;

 To identify knowledge gaps, cultural beliefs, and behavioural patterns.

 To generate baseline levels and measure changes that will result from the project. 
 To assess and identify communications processes and sources important for project
implementation and effectiveness. 
 To help set project priorities and make project decisions. 
Information gathered from the KAP survey, are the drivers for this project and are discussed
briefly in the following sub-headings; technological, environmental, economic and social.

Figure 3 Project Steering Committee Figure 4 KAP Survey Household #1

Figure 5 KAP Survey Household #2 Figure 6 KAP Survey Household #3

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2.1 Technological
According to the KAP survey, the village is
using PicoPV lighting for most houses as
subsidised by their local member of the
parliament in 2015. A PicoPV system
(Figure 7Figure 7) is defined as a small Formatte

solar home system with a power output of 1

to 10W, mainly used for lighting and thus
able to replace unhealthy and inefficient

Figure 7 A typical PicoPV System supporting DC loads. Sizes? sources such as kerosene lamps and
candles. (Phaesun, 2017). PicoPV System
(PPS) are powered by a small solar panel and a battery which can be integrated in the lamp
itself. PPS offer a wide range of advantages: easy installation (Plug & Play), user-friendly
application, high degree of expandability and flexible use. However, the villages have new
demands which requires a bigger reliable supply 24/7 to really improve their quality of life. 

2.2 Environmental
Environmental concern about global warming and local pollution is the primary impetus for
many clean energy technologies. This warming trend is generally attributed to increased
emission of certain gases, known as greenhouse gasses (GHG), from mostly conventional
energy systems like generator. CO2 emission from a generator using diesel fuel is 2.68Kg of
CO2 per litre (Ref.?). There are two small generators for the primary school and a trade store
in Imogoro Village. The gensets run most days, thus contributing to global warming, and
apart from CO2 emissions there is noise pollution complaints by neighbouring households.

2.3 Economic
The two generators used by the school and the store require fuel to run for most times of the
day. Assuming for both generators, 30hrs run-time average per day, fuel consumption
average is 2.6L/hr, and the fuel price of $0.9/L, would incur a total fuel cost of $70.20 per
day. The picoPV System cannot be sustained over 20 years to help the households with
their economic activities. With their low-income status, they cannot sacrifice their other
needs to maintain the PPS, especially spares for the faulty PicoPV Lamps. The households
depend mainly on agriculture for their income. With the low lifetime of the current PPS, how
can they maintain their economic activities like, bake bread at night to sell, selling tobacco at
night, opening a trade store at night.

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2.4 Social
Clean energy technologies are associated with a number of social benefits that are of
particular interest to governments. Firstly, clean energy technologies generally require more
labour per unit of energy produced than conventional energy technologies, thus creating more
jobs. Secondly, conventional energy technologies exploit concentrated energy resources in
a capital-intensive manner and require the constant exploration for new sources of energy.
The additional cost of the labour required by clean energy technologies is offset by the lower
cost of energy inputs. For example, in the case of solar, the energy input is free. The public
accepted the PicoPV system and desire more on what the technology can help in their
livelihoods. It can create job, improve health and reduce rural-urban migration.

3 Energy Demand
A representative rural village centre in Rigo District is estimated to have a population of 870.
Assuming 5 persons per house, 174 households were considered. Imogoro Village is a small
village so current household assume to be 100 houses (Figure 2Figure 2). The proposed Formatte

power plant for the houses will be designed to meet primary loads of the village as shown in
Table 1Table 1. Based on these loads and the assumed times and duration of use, the daily load
profile is generated and shown in Error! Reference source not found.Figure 8. The spikes
are the households’ lighting demand during mornings (05:00-06:00) and early evenings
(18:00-22:00). This village would require a power plant that can produce 26 kWh of
electricity per day with a peak load of 6.4 kW. The demand is assumed to be same all year
round. good and well explained

Primary Load Description Time of use

Lighting 3 light bulbs per household at 10W each. 05:00-06:00, 18:00-22:00
Mobile Phone Charger 5 phones charging at 6W each 07:00-10:00, 18:00-20:00
Street Lights 200W for street lights 00:00-05:00, 18:00-23:00
Cold store 400W for food/drinks refrigeration 00:00-23:00
Table 1 Primary loads for the community in Imogoro village.

Figure 8 Daily Load Profile of the village. good and important to show

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4 Resources Availability
Available Solar Radiation and Wind Speed is formulated from NASA satellite and reanalysis-
derived insolation and meteorological data for the 20-year period from July 1983 through
June 2005. Results are provided for 1° latitude by 1° longitude grid cells over the globe.
The global data set makes it possible to quickly evaluate the potential of renewable energy
projects for any region of the world and is considered to be accurate for preliminary
feasibility studies of renewable energy projects (Whitlock et al., 2000).

Figure 9 Monthly averaged solar radiations data (kWh/m2/d). Figure 10 Monthly Averaged Wind Speed at 10 m (m/s).

Wind Resource:
Studies have found that average wind speeds in a particular location need to exceed at least 6-
8 m/s for a small wind turbine to be economically viable (Level, 2017). Supported by, Wind
Resource Atlas recommends Class 4 mean wind speed 6.5-7.0 m/s at 30m as a good wind
site. Since wind technology is not a matured technology in the country and without guided
policy in place, even though there is potential, this project will disregard wind technology.

Solar Resource:
Imogoro village receeiveshas got ample solar insolation (Error! Reference source not
found.Figure 9) throughout the area. Based on NASA surface meteorology and solar energy
database, solar resource assessment was done using three key indicators as highlighted
below.
Magnitude:
Average annual horizontal solar radiation(GHI) 5.60 kWh/m2 per day
Average annual plane-of-array solar radiation(POA) 5.68 kWh/m2 per day
Rating? Excellent!
Clearness index values:
Monthly average daily values range 0.50 - 0.61
Rating? Very good – high percentage of clear sky days
Seasonal Effects:
Lowest month 4.71 kWh/m2 per day – still quite good

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Improved by tilting surface to 9 deg. (location latitude) 5.04 kWh/m2 per day
Rating? No significant seasonal effects
Overall rating of solar resource: An excellent resource!

5 Proposed Plan to Electrify the Area

Substantial research has been conducted to demonstrate that the hybrid system with energy
storage is techno-economically viable for rural electrification in remote areas (Ma et al.,
2014). In this paper, the following power generation systems are evaluated for possible
supply of power to the Imogoro village.
 Diesel Generator
 Solar PV in combination with Battery system
 Diesel Generator in combination with Solar PV and Battery system

Figure 11 Component of the proposed Hybrid System.  Figure 12 Hybrid System simulated with HOMER 4. 

The schematic diagram with all power sources is shown in Figure 11Figure 11. Simulations for
a number of prospective design configurations for each of above cases are performed using
HOMER 4 (Figure 12Figure 12). The optimized result will be the proposed configuration to
electrify Imogoro village.

5.1 System Components

1. PV Modules
The solar PV system was modelled as fixed and tilted toward north at an optimal angle of
19.1deg., to access an average annual solar radiation of 6.83kWh/m2/day. For simulation
analysis, three different PV array sizes: 5 kW, 10kW and 15 kW; are considered. The
technical and economic data of the PV module is shown in Table 2Table 2.
PV Assumptions
Model SunPower, 210Wp, 1.24m2
Capital Cost $1352/kW

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Replacement Cost $1000/kW

Operation & Maintenance Cost $240/yr.
Derating factor (temp., dirt & man. tol.) 0.8
Tracking system No
Optimal Slope 19.1deg.
Azimuth 180 deg. to face North.
Lifetime 20 years
Table 2 PV module data.

Back of the envelop calculation for PV sizing:

Array size (in kW) = Average daily load (in kWh) / (PSH x derating factor x ηInv x ηBattery x
ηMPPT)

Array size = 26/(4.71x0.8x0.9x0.8x0.95) = 10.088

MPPT/Controller efficiency = 95% (assumption stated)
PSH from worst month is June = 4.71 hrs.
Results value for the array size should be 10 kW. good and simple

2. Battery Bank
The battery is used to meet the electrical load during the non-availability of power from the
energy generating systems (PV or diesel generator). Different number of battery strings are
considered (0, 1, 2, 3, 4). The technical and economic data of the battery is shown in Table
3Table 3.

Battery Assumptions
Model Surette 4KS25P
Nominal Voltage 4V
Nominal Capacity @100-h rate 1900 Ah
Efficiency 80%
Capital Cost $170
Replacement cost $130
Operation & Maintenance Cost $10/year
Lifetime 4 years
Table 3 Battery data.

Back of the envelop calculation for battery sizing:

Battery Size, CAh = N x Load / [(ηInv + ηBattery) x DoDallowed x Nominal voltage]

Average Daily Load = 26 kWh

Number of days of autonomy (N) = 6 Days (worst month Aug.)
Allowed Depth of Discharge (DoD)= 50 %
Battery Size = 45882.35 Ah ??

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Assume 48VDC bus system.

Number of batteries = 45882.35Ah/1900Ah =24
Batteries per string = 48V/4V =12
Number of strings = 24/12 =2

3. Converter
A power converter is required for a hybrid renewable energy system to maintain the flow of
energy between DC and AC components. The technical and economic data of the converter
is shown in Table 4Table 4.
Converter Assumptions
Model Emerson Inverter
Rated capacity 1kW but your max. load is 6.4 kW ?
Efficiency 90%
Capital Cost $800/kW
Replacement Cost $700/kW
Operation & Maintenance Cost $0/year
Lifetime 20years
Table 4 Converter data.

4. Diesel Generator
The generator system is used to supplement the power production by the renewable energy
conversion system and battery energy storage systems especially when the required electrical
load is not fully provided by these systems. The technical and economic data of the
generator is shown in Table 5Table 5.
Diesel Generator Assumptions
Model FJ Wilson ?? kW
Minimum load ratio (%) 40
Capital Cost $1000/kW
Replacement Cost $900/kW
Operation & Maintenance Cost $0.025/hr
Lifetime 15000hours
Fuel price $0.9/L
Table 5 Diesel generator data.

5.2 Optimization Results

The HOMER software performs 320 simulations in order to arrive at the optimum system for
serving the site load. From the optimization results the most economically feasible
configuration for the site load is composed of 10 kW PV-Array, 10 kW converter and 24
units of batteries of which each has a nominal voltage of 4 V and capacity of 1900 Ah with
NO diesel generator!. Total net present cost (NPC), Capital cost and cost of energy (COE) for
such a system is $36,827, $25,600 and $0.391/kWh, respectively for one ? year or the life

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expectancy of the system?. The detailed optimization results are shown in Figure 13Figure Formatte

13. The top row is the optimized result which will become the proposed configuration now to
electrify Imogoro village.

Figure 13 Optimization results of hybrid energy system for the primary loads. NO diesel generator!

In this simulation results eliminates all infeasible combinations and ranks the feasible systems
according to increasing net present cost (NPC). The Monthly Average Electricity Production
of the Energy System for the village is shown in Figure 14Figure 14. In this system the total
production of electrical energy fulfils the load demand by 100% PV system which is clean as
no genset is required. There is a 30% excess electricity which indicates a 100% reliable
system.

Figure 14 Annual electricity production by the system. good information!

5.3 Operations and Maintenance

The Project responds to the experience of previous donor-funded efforts in PNG that
provided rural infrastructure investments without explicit ownership (Sovacool, 2013).

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Efforts now, with explicit ownership, each household will be motivated to maintain the
investment. The Project will encourage sustainability in four ways:
(i) the lighting kits will be paid for and owned by the households, creating self
interest in maintaining the units; 
(ii) the project will introduce and enforce suitable quality standards for products and
services and customer training to ensure that technical failures are minimized, 
(iii) the early demonstration of renewable energy technologies in the rural villages will
help raise confidence in the technology and stimulate demand for additional
applications, including other high-value domestic and productive uses, and 
(iv) the project will support the establishment of a Code of Conduct for spent battery
waste management and a battery return mechanism. This will not only mitigate
environmental impact of batteries disseminated through the Project but will be
extended to include all other system components. 
Assuring the sustainability to the off-grid PV systems may therefore involve subsidizing the
electricity tariffs of poor population (such that all O&M are covered). According to Eberhard
et al. (2008), widespread subsidies for electricity never reach the poor,... Therefore, an
effective focalized subsidy scheme (e.g., cross-tariff scheme) that reaches the poor and
assures covering the O&M is advisable (Laufer & Schäfer, 2011; Moss et al., 2011).  good
and important!

6 Impact (social, economic, environmental)

Social Impact: Particulate matter is of growing concern because of CO2 impacts on health.
Its presence in the air along with other pollutants has contributed to make asthma one of the
fastest growing childhood ailments in the village. If solar energy were to provide 100% of the
village lighting--a very realistic and achievable goal with the proposed technology--it could
displace more than a third of the emissions from generator, kerosene lamps, candles and
firewood. It will help contain the spread of asthma and other respiratory diseases aggravated
or caused by air pollution in the village. Improved overall health, lifestyle changes and
reduced rural-urban migration as the standard of living improve in the village now.

Economic Impact: Solar power supplies affordable, inexhaustible energy to the economy. It
also provides jobs and other sources of income. Best of all, solar powers the economy
without causing pollution, generating hazardous wastes, or depleting natural resources.
Solar power system can revitalize the economy of village, providing steady income through

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lease or royalty payments to farmers and other landowners. In Imogoro village, the local
school is earning savings and income from the electricity generated previously by a generator
(which will cease now!). Additional income is generated from one-time payments to
construction contractors during installation, and from payments to solar power maintenance
personnel on a long-term basis. Trade store can sell their goods day and night. It is a cost-
effective and reliable system for a rural village. 

Environment Impact: Solar energy system operations do not generate air or water emissions
and do not produce hazardous waste. Nor do they deplete natural resources such as coal, oil,
or gas, or cause environmental damage through resource extraction and transportation. Solar's
pollution-free electricity can help reduce the environmental damage caused by the
conventional generators. 100% clean energy system, no CO2 emission, no noise pollution as
generator is not required anymore. Although, the physical environment of the place will
change to incorporate the construction of the project.

7 Disadvantages and Limitations

Firstly, land acquisition is highlighted in the KAP survey. Must involve community
participation to avoid project vandalism in the future. The proposed power plant (10kW PV
array), would require 60m2 of land use. Plus, a shelter for battery storage system under the
array shed, and 3m extension space to fence everything inside.

Secondly, a servicing company needs to be identified to support locally with maintenance and
supplying of spare parts and replacing if necessary. But mostly ownership and maintenance
activities are to be done by locally trained people to gain responsibility.

Finally, the policy of such micro-grid system in the country is in its draft stage. The
government needs clear guidance in supporting such technology such as wind resource is also
abundant but has never being exploit in the country.

8 Conclusion and Recommendation

Lack of opportunities and essential services such as electricity and water are major
contributors to migration, and in the case of PNG, rural-urban migration. In this paper, we
have conducted an assessment to identify the viability of using renewable energy system to
supply power to homes, street lighting, charging phones and cold store in a village in the
Rigo District of PNG without access to grid electricity. The cost of deploying this proposed

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system of electricity service to a community of 100 households is estimated at $36,827 with

an LCOE of $0.391/kWh. The LCOE of $0.391/kWh is over 115% higher than the average
end-user tariff of $0.34/kWh in PNG. Assuming capital investment support of 100%,
however, would bring the LCOE down to $0.06/kWh and yields a net present cost of
$5,651.20 compared with $36,827 option over the life of the project. This reinforces the
key role of government and development partners like World Bank, in providing
communities with green and low carbon options in electrification programmes. This role is
particularly important in view of the characteristic of RETs such as solar and wind, which
require high upfront costs. good summary!

The regular financial metrics, such as LCOE and NPC are hardly able to reveal the true extent
of the benefits of such an intervention well said!. These interventions often displace
inferior, low-quality and polluting options such as kerosene and locally made lamps, which
pose health hazards to users. Such investments may rightly be viewed as investment in health,
productivity and jobs, and with the potential to stem rural urban migration from such
village. absolutely right!! Well stated!

You provided a very good piece of work, clear, easy to read and professionally presented,
well done!
You show that you have a clear and thorough understanding of what was asked for by the
World Bank.
While the whole report is excellent and praise worthy, I particularly like that you used
HOMER and presented its results in an attractive and easy to understand way! Good that you
can eliminate the diesel generator as that will bring great long-term benefits and cost savigs
to the users!
It was a pleasure to read your report!

Congratulations!

Overall Grade: 92

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9 References
DNPM. (2010). Papua New Guinea Development Strategic Plan 2010 - 2030. Retrieved
from http://www.asialeds.org/sites/default/files/resource/file/Publications_DSP2010-
2030.pdf
Eberhard, A., Foster, V., Briceño-Garmendia, C., Ouedraogo, F., Camos, D., & Shkaratan,
M. (2008). Underpowered: the state of the power sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Background paper, 6.
Fara, S., Finta, D., Iancu, M., Fara, L., & Malamatenios, C. (2006). Products of HYPOS-
DILETR project: distance learning courses in design and operation of Hybrid Power
Systems. Paper presented at the Automation, Quality and Testing, Robotics, 2006
IEEE International Conference on.
Laufer, D., & Schäfer, M. (2011). The implementation of Solar Home Systems as a poverty
reduction strategy—A case study in Sri Lanka. Energy for Sustainable Development,
15(3), 330-336.
Level. (2017). Wind turbine systems. Retrieved from
http://www.level.org.nz/energy/renewable-electricity-generation/wind-turbine-
systems/
Ma, T., Yang, H., & Lu, L. (2014). A feasibility study of a stand-alone hybrid solar–wind–
battery system for a remote island. Applied Energy, 121, 149-158.
Moss, J., McMann, M., Zipprich, A., Macer, D. R., Nyambati, A. R., Ngo, D., . . . Wolbring,
G. (2011). Energy equity and environmental security. Regional Unit for Social and
Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO, Bangkok, http://unesdoc. unesco.
org/images/0021/002182/218271e. pdf.
Phaesun. (2017). Pico PV Systems. Retrieved from
http://www.phaesun.com/portfolio/projects-systems/competences/pico-pv-
systems.html
Review, W. P. (2017). Papua New Guinea Population 2017. Retrieved from
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/papua-new-guinea-population/

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Sovacool, B. K. (2013). Energy Poverty and Development in Papua New Guinea: Learning
from the Teacher's Solar Lighting Project. Forum for Development Studies, 40(2),
327-349. doi:10.1080/08039410.2012.736405
Whitlock, C. H., Brown, D. E., Chandler, W. S., DiPasquale, R. C., Meloche, N., Leng, G. J.,
. . . Carlson, A. B. (2000). Release 3 NASA surface meteorology and solar energy
data set for renewable energy industry use. Proceedings of Rise and Shine.

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