Studies on Economic Feasibility of an Autonomous Power Delivery System Utilizing Alternative Hybrid Distributed Energy Resources

An economic evaluation of a network of distributed energy resources (DERs) forming an autonomous power delivery system in an Indian scenario has been made. The mathematical analysis is based on the application of a real valued cultural algorithm (RVCA). The RVCA-evaluated total annual costs for the autonomous microgrid system utilizing both solar module and fuel cells as DERs and solar module and bio-mass gassifier unit as DERs have been compared. Different types of consumers together form a microgrid with the optimal supply of power from DERs. The optimal power generation conditions have been obtained pertaining to minimum cost of microgrid system. The results for different loading scenarios, using hybrid solar-biomass gassifier unit are found to be more cost competitive. A reduction of 8.1% in the annual cost is obtained using solar module-biomass gassifier unit to that using solar module-fuel cell for the same load demand in microgrid operation.