Optimal Rural Microgrid Energy Management Using HOMER

The microgrid concept is a natural evolution of distributed resources that may be used to serve energy to customers in areas where conventional power system approaches cannot satisfy the reliability needs. Microgrids[2] may also provide support to conventional power systems that are too constrained to meet the power demands of customers. This paper presents a case study of a remote village dependent on agriculture, with no grid extension. The remote village consists of 400 people and 200 cattle including poultries, bovines, swine etc. The latitude and longitude of the study area are 30° 32’ N and 76° 39’ E respectively. The proposed model consists of Photovoltaic (PV) array, wind energy subsystem, micro hydro, biogas fueled generator and battery storage sub-system. The final goal is to maximize energy output from distributed energy resources (DERs) by Optimization using HOMER. Performance of each component of the model will be evaluated and finally sensitivity analysis will be performed to optimize the system at different conditions.