Techno-economic viability of three different energy-supplying options for remote area electrification in India

Abstract

Distributed power generation based on renewable energy sources brings new life and hope to electrify remote villagers. The proposed work suggests the techno-economic feasibility of three different energy-supplying alternatives namely the solar photovoltaic (SPV) system, diesel generator system and extending the grid connection for energy supply to a remote village located around 15 km away from the place where grid supply is available. Design of all the above three systems along with their economic analysis is carried out in this paper. A comparison on the basis of economic indicators like unit cost of electricity, net present value and payback period among the three systems is also discussed. The results show that the SPV system is economically more viable among the three options apart from environment benefits. This study may provide a new direction for energy planners to supply energy in remote non-electrified areas of India through SPV systems.

Keywords:

• techno-economic evaluation
• rural electrification
• SPV
• diesel generator
• grid extension

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Moser Baer India Pvt Ltd for providing help in the design of SPV systems and UPPCL for help in designing the transmission line system and the UTECH Corporation Ghaziabad for providing help in designing of the diesel generator system.

Notes

1. Everywhere in this paper, cost calculations have been done in INR, and INR 55 = $1.00.