ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE OF HYBRID WIND-DIESEL TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMERCIAL LOADS OF DHAHRAN SAUDI ARABIA - A STEP TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Abstract

The governments world-wide are deliberating to promote renewable energy sources such as wind to mitigate increasing demand of energy and to overcome effects of pollution due to to use of fossil fuels. Integration of wind turbine generators (WTG) with the diesel plants is pursued widely to reduce dependence on fossil-fuels and to reduce carbon emissions. Literature indicates that commercial/residential buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A) consume an estimated 10 - 40% of the total electric energy generated. The aim of this study is to analyze wind-speed data of Dhahran (East-Coast, K.S.A.) to assess the economic feasibility of utilizing hybrid wind-diesel power systems to meet the load requirements of a typical commercial building (with annual electrical energy demand of 620,000 kWh). The monthly average wind speeds range from 3.3 to 5.6 m/s. The hybrid systems simulated consist of different combinations of 100 kW commercial WTG supplemented with diesel generators. NREL's (HOMER Energy's) HOMER software has been employed to perform the techno-economic analysis. The simulation results indicate that for a hybrid system comprising of 100 kW wind capacity together with 175 kW diesel system, the wind penetration (at 37 m hub-height, with 0% annual capacity shortage) is 25%. The cost of generating energy (COE, $/kWh) from this hybrid wind-diesel system has been found to be 0.121 $/kWh (assuming diesel fuel price of 0.1$/liter). The study exhibits that for a given hybrid configuration, the number of operational hours of diesel gensets decreases with increase in wind farm capacity. Emphasis has also been placed on wind penetration, un-met load, energy production and COE, excess electricity generation, percentage fuel savings and reduction in carbon emissions (relative to diesel-only situation) of different hybrid systems, cost break-down of wind-diesel systems, COE of different hybrid systems, etc.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2012-01-28
  • Revision Date2014-06-08
  • Acceptance Date2014-07-11
  • Online Date2014-08-10

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI120128083S

References

  1. Nfaoui H, Buret J, Sayigh A.A.A., Wind characteristics and wind energy potential in Morocco. Solar Energy 1998, 63(1), 51.
  2. Rizk J, Nagrial MH, Mitchell K., Wind energy in Australia. Proc. of abstracts, 7th Arab International Solar Energy Conference. Sharjah, U.A.E. February, 19-22, 2001, 235.
  3. Nayar CV, Thomas FP, Phillips SJ, James WL., Design considerations for appropriate wind energy systems in developing countries. Renewable Energy 1991, 1( 5/6), 713.
  4. Bellarmine TG, Joe U., Wind energy for the 1990s and beyond. Energy Convers. Management 1996, 37(12), 1741.
  5. Randall Swisher and Paul Gipe 1992, "U.S. Windfarms: An Expanding Market", Solar Today, 1992, November/December, 17.
  6. Daoo VJ, Panchal NS, Faby S, Sitaram V, Krishnamoorthy TM., Assessment of wind energy potential of Trombay, Mumbai, India. Energy Convers. Mgmt. 1998, 39(13), 1351.
  7. Amr M, Petersen H, Habali S.M., Assessment of windfarm economics in relation to site wind resources applied to sites in Jordan. Solar Energy 1990, 45(3), 167.
  8. www.wwindea.org/home/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
  9. Nayar CV, Phillips SJ, James WL, Pryor TL, and Remmer D., Novel wind/diesel/battery hybrid energy system. Solar Energy 1993, 51(1), 65.
  10. www.awts.pe.ca/wind_diesel_research.htm. Atlantic Wind Test site. Wind-Diesel Systems - Description & Operation.
  11. Liu W., Gu S., and Qiu D. Techno-Economic Assessment for Off-Grid Hybrid Generation Systems and the Application Prospects in China. www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/default/tech_papers/17th_congress/3_2_17.asp.
  12. McGowan JG, Manwell JF. Wind/diesel energy systems: review of design options and recent developments. Solar Energy 1998; 41(6): 561-575.
  13. Gevorgian V and Touryan K. Wind-Diesel Hybrid Systems for Russia's Northern Territories. Presented at Windpower 99, Burlington, Vermont, June 20-23, 1999
  14. Lipman NH. Autonomous Wind-Diesel Systems for Remote Applications. Wind Engineering 1988; 12(3): 173-193.
  15. Oyvin Skarstein and Kjetil Uhlen. Design Considerations with Respect to Long-Term Diesel Saving in Wind/Diesel Plants. Wind Engineering 1989; 13(2): 72-87.
  16. Barley CD and LT Flowers. Feasibility of hybrid retrofits to off-grid diesel power plants in the Philippines. Presented at Windpower 99, Burlington, Vermont, June 20-23, 1999
  17. Fortunato B. Mummolo G. and Cavallera G. Economic optimisation of a wind power plant for isolated locations. Solar Energy, Vol. 60, No. 6, pp. 347-358, 1997.
  18. Lundsager P., Bindner H. A simple, robust & reliable wind diesel concept for remote power supply. Renewable Energy, Vol. 5, part I, pp.626-630, 1994.
  19. hang H. The development and review of wind/diesel systems of the world. New Energy (Chongqing, China), Vol. 18 No.6, pp.1-8, 1996.
  20. Jose Antonio Carta and Jaime Gonzolez. Self-sufficient energy supply for isolated communities: Wind-diesel systems in the Canary Islands. The Energy Journal 2001; 22(3) 115-145.
  21. Drouilhet S, Shirazi M. Wales. Alaska high-penetration wind-diesel hybrid power system. Technical report (theory of operation). National Renewable Energy Laboratory, May 2002,NREL/TP-500-31755.
  22. Cramer G. Technology transfer allows China to build exotic power systems. Power Engineering, Feb. 1994. 33-35.
  23. Lipman NH, Infield DG. Wind-diesel systems. pp. 330-340.
  24. Watson GR. Operational experience of hybrid wind-diesel systems. Wind Engineering 1987; 11(2): 107-113.
  25. Ebert PR and Zimmermann. Successful high wind penetration into a medium sied diesel grid without energy storage using variable speed wind turbine technology. Proc. Of EWEC, March 1-5, Nice, France, pp. 903-906, 1999.
  26. Beyer HG, Thomas D. Assessing the maximum fuel savings obtainable in simple wind-diesel systems. Solar Energy 1997; 61(1) : 5-10.
  27. First Annual report, Saudi Electricity Company, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2002-2003.
  28. Hansen U., Technological options for power generation. The Energy Journal 1998, 19(2), 63.
  29. About wind energy. www.wind.enron.com/windenergy.html.
  30. Elhadidy MA, Shaahid SM., Parametric study of hybrid (wind+solar+diesel) power generating systems. International Journal of Renewable Energy 2000; 21, 129.
  31. Elhadidy MA, Shaahid SM., Feasibility of hybrid (wind+solar) power systems for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. World Renewable Energy Congress V, Florence-Italy, 20-25 September, 1998.
  32. Shaahid, SM. and Elhadidy MA. Technical and economic assessment of grid-independent hybrid photovoltaic-diesel-battery power systems for commercial loads in desert environments. International Renewable and Sustainable Energy Journal. 2007; 11: 1794-1810.
  33. Elhadidy MA, Shaahid SM., Optimal sizing of battery storage for hybrid (wind+diesel) power systems. International Journal of Renewable Energy 1999; 18/1, 77.
  34. www.nrel.gov/international/tools/HOMER/homer.html.
  35. Shaahid SM, Elhadidy MA. IBM pc based data acquisition system for solar radiation station. Proc. of 40th International Instrumentation Sym., ISA 40, 1-5 May, 1994.
  36. Elhadidy MA, Shaahid SM. Effect of Kuwait's oil-fire smoke cloud on global horizontal irradiance at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Solar Energy 1994; 52(5): 439-46.
  37. Internal report, Analysis of electric energy consumption in residential buildings, P/N#12031, Research Institute, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, August, 1992
  38. Elhadidy MA, Shaahid SM. Wind resource assessment of eastern coastal region of Saudi Arabia. Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Basic and Applied Sciences (JAAUBAS) 2005; 1: 27-40.
  39. www.otherpower.com/windbasics2.html
  40. www.iptv.org/exploremore/energy/profiles/wind.cfm
  41. Infield DG. Wind diesel systems technology and modelling - a review. Journal of Renewable Energy Engineering April 1999; 1(1): 18-27.
Volume 19, Issue 1, Pages167 -178