Techno-Economic Analysis of Hybrid Photovoltaic/ Diesel Energy System for Oil and Gas Industries in Nigeria

This paper focuses on the technical and economic analysis of renewable energy for the sustainability of oil and gas industries in Nigeria, particularly the impact of photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy technology. Two energy generation systems (hybrid PV/Diesel with battery storage, and Diesel-Only) configured to serve a18kW AC load for a supposed gas company were examined. HOMER software was used for optimal sizing of systems components and the feasibility analysis. System costs involve investments, replacements and operation and maintenance costs and the characteristics of components are commercially available. The optimization problem is subject to economic and environmental constraints. A comparative analysis between the examined systems found diesel generation to be of low investment cost, however it had some disadvantages like fuel consumption cost and green-house-gas (GHG) emission. The cost of PV components with battery storage device was found to be relatively high, but the system constituted a significant advantage when incorporated with diesel generation. Finally, system with best configuration that has minimum cost and can satisfy the constraints is selected. The study is performed in a special region in South-West of Nigeria.