The Determination of Optimal Operating Condition For an Off-Grid Hybrid Renewable Energy Based Micro-Grid: A Case Study in Izmir, Turkey

Abstract

Nowadays, off-grid systems, which do not require grid connection investment instead of grid connected systems, have become quite feasible. In this study, a feasibility analysis was carried out for a hybrid energy system using solar and wind energy sources to supply to uninterrupted electricity demand of a region with 100 villas in Izmir, Turkey. It has been shown that how changes cost of the hybrid energy system sizing according to the control strategies by using the HOMER software. In the paper, two different control strategies are determined as Cycle Charging (CC) and Load Following (LF), and then the control strategies are compared. According to the results obtained as a result of the simulations, it has been revealed that the research region to operate with CC can supply to the electrical energy demand with lower capacity system architecture. The CC was found to be more suitable for the research region than LF in terms of both Cost of Energy (COE) and Net Preset Cost (NPC).