IEEE- International Conference On Advances In Engineering, Science And Management (ICAESM -2012) March 30, 31, 2012 94

Economic Cost Analysis ofHybrid Renewable

Energy System using HOMER

U. Sureshkumar Dr. P.S.Manoharan A.P.S. Ramalakshmi

Electrical & Electronics Engg. Dept. Electrical & Electronics Engg. Dept. Electrical & Electronics Engg. Dept.
Mohamed Sathak Engg. College Thiagarajar College of Engineering Thiagarajar College of Engineering
uskrk@sify.com psmeee@tce.edu apsreee@tce.edu

variation of solar and wind energy generation. So in addition

Abstract -- This paper deals with the optimal cost analysis of hybrid
renewable energy system (HRES). The optimal cost analysis of
HRES is done using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric
Renewable (HOMER). The HOMER energy modeling software is a
powerful tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems,
which contain a combination of conventional generators,
cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic's, hydropower,
batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs. It is
currently used all over the world by tens of thousands of people.
HRES provides the electrical power for a remote located area. In
this paper work, real time optimal cost analysis of HRES is done
based on the load profile, solar radiation and wind speed which was
collected from Mandapam in Ramanathapuram District, Tamil
Nadu in India. HOMER is used here to optimize the system based
upon the Total Net Present Cost (TNPC}. Moreover, the
optimization of system is obtained by varying the sensitivity
variables like solar radiation, wind speed etc. Cash flow summary
of the HRES system is obtained which will be useful for the optimal
cost allocation of each individual component present in the system.
Keywords--- COE, HOMER, Optimization, Photovoltaic panel,
TNPC, Wind Generator.
to HRES, battery can be provided at that time to meet out the
load demands [3 ]. Also use of the hybrid system with
(PVIWG) battery reduces battery storage requirement.
Research conducted worldwide indicates that hybrid
PV/Wind/battery system is a reliable source of electricity [4, 5
and 6]. N ational Renewable Energy Laboratory's (N REL)
Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable
(HOMER) software has been employed to carry out the
present study. HOMER performs comparative economic
analysis on hybrid power systems. Inputs to HOMER will
perform an hourly simulation of every possible combination of
components entered and rank the systems according to user­
specified criteria, such as cost of energy or capital costs [7].
In this paper the simulation of a hybrid energy system
composed of PV together with WG, and battery storage has
performed and a power management strategy has designed and
simulated.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

I. IN TRODUCTION The HRES is designed based upon the certain important

The utilization of renewable energy for electric power
production is an antique method. N owadays, due to the
tremendous increase in fossil fuels prices and the
environmental problems caused by the use of conventional
fuels, we are reverting back to renewable energy sources.[I]
Renewable energies are inexhaustible, clean and they can be
used in a decentralized way. Also, they have the additional
advantage of being complimentary, the integration between
them being favorable. For example, solar photovoltaic energy
supplies electricity on sunny days while on cold and windy
days, which are frequently cloudy, the wind generators are in
position to supply more electric energy for stand alone and
grid connected applications. HRES are becoming popular for
remote area power generation applications due to advances in
renewable energy technologies.
A hybrid energy system usually consists of two or more
renewable energy sources used together to provide increased
system efficiency as well as greater balance in energy supply
[2]. Even then there will be some power outage due to
sensitivity variables to optimize the cost & size effectively.
Hence, before designing the model, certain parameters like
solar irradiation, wind speed and load profile must be
evaluated. It's presented in the following sections.
A. Solar Radiation and Wind Speed Data
In this paper work, real time solar irradiation and wind
speed data is collected from Mandapam (Latitude: 9.2833 &
Longitude: 79.1167) for the year 2010. This data is analyzed
for designing an hybrid power system (which includes
PV/WG/Battery) which has to meet a load requirement of a
typical remote village, in our case an average demand of
1.989KWhld. Fig.l shows the monthly average daily solar
radiation ranges from 6.4 to 7.8 (kWhlm2) while Fig. 2
shows the monthly average daily wind speed. Reference [12]
possess the daily averaged data like insolation on horizontal
surface, insolation clearness index, clear sky insolation
clearness index etc. of locations all over the world which is
very much useful for designing HRES using HOMER.

ISBN: 978-81-909042-2-3 ©2012 IEEE

IEEE- International Conference On Advances In Engineering, Science And Management (ICAESM -2012) March 30, 31, 2012 95

Moreover online plot of each data as mentioned above are grid-connected or autonomous and can serve ac and dc electric
available. loads and a thermal load.
Global Horizontal Radiation
7 1.0

6
0.8
f-- Primary Load 1
r- -
1,989 kWh/d
V 207 kW peak
io,.
- Copy of Fuhrland..
l-'
-

0.2
-
Converter H2500

o Jan Feb MBI Apr May Jun Jul Aug Seep Oct !'Iov Dec 0.0
Dai11y Radiation - Cl="" Index AC DC
Fig. 1 Monthly average daily solar radiation
Fig. 4 Hybrid power system design using HOMER

Wind Speed Monthly ,\verage

8
The FigA shows Hybrid Power System Design Using Homer.

�tr �rr
r- r-
0- r-
r-
-
It consists of Photovoltaic array, wind generator, converter,
- load and battery. The simulation process serves two purposes.
First of all the feasibility of the system is determined.
-

HOMER considers the system to be feasible if it can

o
Ja� Feb Mm Apr May Jun Jul Aug Seep Oct Nov Dec adequately serve the electric load and satisfy any other
Fig. 2Monthly average daily wind speed. constraints imposed by the user. Secondly, the life-cycle cost
of the system is determined, which is the total cost of

nmm�'�:
installing and operating the system over its lifetime. In order
to estimate the system performance under different situation,
simulation studies have been carried out using real weather
�1z:l1 ft::.lI '1:11 AJI IIrtt! JUII J lI l .'.L1j �p OU Nw A:... AUII
data (solar insolation and wind speed). Then the system has to
Fig. 3Monthly average loads (KW) for complete year be optimized. For the optimization process, HOMER
B. Load Profile simulates many different system configurations, discards the
infeasible ones (those that do not satisfy the user-specified
An important consideration of any power generating constraints), ranks the feasible ones according to total net
system is load for the efficiency and reliability of power present cost, and presents the feasible one with the lowest total
transmission. In this case study, we have considered a remote net present cost as the optimal system configuration. The goal
village which lack access to the utility grid. So the measured of the optimization process is to determine the optimal value
annual consumption is considered as1.989KWhld in the of each decision variable that interests the modeler [7]. A
present study. The Fig. 3 shows monthly average load profile. decision variable is a variable over which the system designer
The peak load requirement decides the size of system. Here has control and for which HOMER can consider multiple
possible values in its optimization process.
207KW is considered as peak load consumption.

III. HOMER SIMULAnON MODEL Possible decision variables in HOMER include:

• The size of the PV array
In the present work, the selection and sizing of components
• The number of WG
of hybrid power system has been done using N REL's
• The Capacity of batteries.
HOMER software. HOMER is user friendly software.
• The size of the DC/AC converters
HOMER's fundamental capability is simulating the long-term
operation of a micro power system. Its higher-level
capabilities, optimization and sensitivity analysis, rely on this A. Power Management Strategy:
simulation capability[7].The simulation process determines We have discussed here how the power to the load is
how a particular system configuration, a combination of dispatched with available resources. The Fig. 5 shows the
system components of specific sizes, and an operating strategy daily power output view of PV, WG and AC primary load for
that defines how those components work together, would the month of January. Generally, PV and WG supply the
behave in a given setting over a long period of time. HOMER demand of load circuit. The excess energy that is available in
can simulate a wide variety of micro power system PV and WG is given to the battery until it's fully charged. The
configurations, comprising any combination of a PV array, battery is used to improve load power dispatch efficiently
one or more wind turbines, a run-of-river hydro- turbine and since PV and WG is non- linear source. When the output
up to three generators, a battery bank, an ac-dc converter, an power of PV/WG is higher than the load power and also if
electrolyzer, and a hydrogen storage tank. The system can be
ISBN: 978-81-909042-2-3 ©2012 IEEE
IEEE- International Conference On Advances In Engineering, Science And Management (ICAESM -2012) March 30, 31, 2012 96

battery's state of charge is maximum, the excess output power

ofpV/WG goes unused. [8, 10, 11 and 12] !m,-
. -++-----j---_,t_---.+t--+--H'-\----I

o;;" l O))'-
. -+-'---M-fc----j--jbotll-t+--f�.-t-I--+--- I

TABLE I
TECHN ICAL DATA OF HRES
l " . +---H+--
. ,'- tlH
-··-YlHf-+-+-'--'-\HI--fl-.---f
t---HI -tl- f�H---'I-h!---l!i-----+1'
. 0 :" ,-
.

m,..,
. f----HI----\-I---1t-++---'I-l----+-"----#
SYSTEM
1�!-----_,___--;---------,----__,
PVarray

4061 25US$/kWpk
m --jI+-llI---+---:IhI�_I\---+__I---- 1
Capital Cost

0&M Cost 0

Efficiency 20 %
.
J5IUI}'
Lifetime 20year

Tracking system No Tracking

Fig.5 Daily power output view of load,PV, Copy of Fuhrlander 250(WG)
for the month of January
WG

Technology Copy of Fuhrlander 250

IV. OPTIMIZATION RESULTS
Power 1 00kW

Hub Height 40m

A. Without Consideration o/Sensitivity Variables
Simulation has been done by considering different number
Capital Cost 335000US$
of PV capacities and WG. The number of PV and WG unit is
O&MCost 5000 varied. The battery storage size (kWh) considered include 0-6
load-hours autonomy (equivalent to 0-6 hours of average
Lifetime 20year
load).
Battery In optimization process, HOMER can simulate a range of
equipment options over varying constraints and sensitivities to
Technology Hoppecke 20OPzS 3000
optimize small power systems. Depending on the Total N et
Capacity 5 kWh Present Cost (TN PC), feasible system configuration will be
Nominal Capacity 2500 Ah
displayed at the optimization result window. The combination
of system components is arranged from most effective cost to
Voltage 2v
the least effective cost. The optimization results are done for
Min.SOC 30% every selection of sensitivity variables in HRES, table II
shows the optimization results for the HRES without
Capital cost 1 000US$
considering the sensitivity variables. As shown in table II, the
Replacement cost 300US$ minimum cost of energy obtained from the results is
0.23 5 $/KWh (INR = 12) against 0.382$/KWh (INR =18) for
Efficiency 86%
the PV capacity of 2000KW, WG & battery of 10 numbers
Lifetime 20 and converter of 10,000KW. Moreover, the total operating
Converter
cost is $86,279 per year and also some of interesting
information came out from above simulation result was that
Capacity 1 00KW
operating cost and TN PC as well as COE went to increase in
Capital cost 400000 US$ linear manner, when we will increase the size of the PV
without changing of the size of the Wind as well as converter
Replacement cost 350000US$
at the same time when we have increase the size of the Wind it
Efficiency 90% leads to enormous increase in Operating cost from $86,279 to
$100.717. From the above simulation work we have
Lifetime 1 5year
concluded that cost of the PV deeply depends upon the cost of
System Data the energy in my simulation work.
Project Life Time 25year
B. With Consideration o/Sensitivity Variables
operating strategy Load following
The optimization results are also obtained based upon the
sensitivity variables like solar radiation of 6 kWh/m2/d and
wind speed of 7.0 (m/s) which is presented in table III. It can
be noticed from these results that without Battery system our
proposed system to provide the reliability of supply and also is
ISBN: 978-81-909042-2-3 ©2012 IEEE
IEEE- International Conference On Advances In Engineering, Science And Management (ICAESM -2012) March 30, 31, 2012 97

the most commercial and also economical compared to 0.233$/KWh as shown in table II.
previous optimization result (i.e.) without sensitivity variable The monthly average electric production is shown in
[9]. As in [1], HRES COE is 0.296$/KWh with consideration Fig. 6.
of sensitivity variable whereas in this paper HRES COE is

TABLE II

OPTIMIZATION RESULTS WITHOUT CONSIDERATION OF SENSITIVITY VARIABLES

System Type PV(KW) FL250 Hoppecke Converter Total Capital Operating Total NPC COE
200PzS (KW) Cost($) Cost($/Yr) (in $) ($/KWh)
3000

r � �I& 2000 10 10 10,000 920,000 86,279 2,022,938 0.235

r. �1& 2000 15 10 10,000 1,170,000 100,777

87,112
2,458,266

2,833,582
0.283

0.328

r:;t: �t;jJ I&1;;;]

10000 10 10 10,000 1,720,000

" 10000 15 10 10,000 1,970,000 101,622 3,269,065 0.375

TABLE III

OPTIMIZATION RESULTS BY CONSIDERING SENSlTIVITY VARIABLES (GLOBAL SOLAR= 6KWH/m2/d & WIND SPEED =7m1s)

System Type PV(KW) FL250 Hoppecke Converter (KW) Total Capital Operating Total NPC COE
200PzS Cost($) Cost($/Yr) (in $) (KWh/Yr)
3000

2,000 10 10 10,000 920,000 86,198 2,021,902 0.233

1':.e�
2,000 15 0 10,000 1,150,000 98,932 2,414,681 0.280
1" . �
1" p. �e� 2,000 15 10 10,000 1,170,000 100,709 2,457,394 0.281

1" j[t!, e� 10,000 10 10 10,000 1,720,000 87,049 2,832,773 0.326

1': �� � 10,000 15 0 10,000 1,950,000 99,800 3,225,785 0.373

1" )iAe� 10,000 15 10 10,000 1,970,000 101,559 3,268,264 0.373

Monthl¥ Averag:e, E r,ectric Prodl uctio n

1.600
- PV
- r-
- W in�

- - -
r- r-
r-
1.200 - -r- -r- r-- 1-- -I-r- 1-� 1-- 1- - -
r- -
r- r---
-
§'
". r- r-
r- - - -
800 - -r-I-- -r- r-- 1-- -r- - I-- -r- 1-- 1- - -
- r- -r- 1--
�
0
!Ii.

400 - -r- -r- r-- 1-- -r- -r- -r- -r- 1-- 1-- 1- - -

0
Ja n Fe b M .... Ap" May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct tole" Dec
Fig,6Monthly average electric production

ISBN: 978-81-909042-2-3 ©2012 IEEE

IEEE- International Conference On Advances In Engineering, Science And Management (ICAESM -2012) March 30, 31, 2012 98

IV. COST OPTIMIZATION

The aim of this study is to achieve a stand-alone hybrid
generation system, which should be appropriately designed in
terms of economic, reliability, and environ-mental measures
subject to physical and operational constraints/strategies [13 &
17].
The system cost is defined as sum of PV cost (Cpv), WG
cost (Cwo), battery cost (CSAT) and converter cost ( CConv) .
The cost for each element should be deducted:
Cj = Nj * [CCostj + RCostj * Kj + OMCostj]
i = pv, WG, Battery and Converter,
Where Ni is the number/size of the system component,
CCosti is the capital cost, RCosti is the replacement cost, Ki
is the number of replacement, and OMCosti is operation
and maintenance cost through the system operation.
The Fig. 7 shows the cash flow summary of HRES
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CONCLUSION
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ISBN: 978-81-909042-2-3 ©2012 IEEE

IEEE- International Conference On Advances In Engineering, Science And Management (ICAESM -2012) March 30, 31, 2012 99

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

U.Suresh Kumar received the M.E.

degree in Applied Electronics in 2001
from Madurai Kamaraj University. He
is currently working as an Assistant
Professor in Mohamed Sathak
engineering College, Kilakarai, Tamil
N adu.
He became a MISTE (LM) in
2004. He is pursuing Ph.D in
optimization of power generation, sizing and cost in
standalone Wind/PV hybrid System.

Dr.P.S.Manoharanreceived Ph.D.
degree in Power System in 2009 from
Anna University, Chennai. He is
currently working as an Assistant
Professor in Thiagarajar College of
Engineering, Madurai, Tamil N adu.
He became a member of IEEE and
IE(I). He is serving as reviewer of
many International Journals. His
research interests are in the area of
Power System and Evolutionary Computing.

A.P.S. Ramalakshmi received the M.E. degree in Power

Electronics & Drives in 2010 from Anna University. She is
currently working as a project fellow in Thiagarajar College of
engineering, Madurai, Tamil N adu.
She is pursuing Ph.D. in real time control of MIMO
system using evolutionary algoritluns. Her research area
includes power electronics.

ISBN: 978-81-909042-2-3 ©2012 IEEE