FEASIBILITY INVESTIGATION OF A HYBRID RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEM AS A BACK UP POWER SUPPLY FOR AN ICT BUILDING IN NIGERIA

Back-up power supply for areas where there is hardly a steady power supply from the grid with the use of renewable energy sources have become more cost-effective and a convenient option when compared to the use of diesel generators. A hybrid combination of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) is generally considered to be the best suited alternative to the use of the environmentally unfriendly option of diesel generators. This paper focuses on creating a model for electricity generation from a mix of renewable energy resources (hydro, solar and biomass) to serve as a back-up power supply to satisfy the electrical needs of a New ICT building in the Federal University of Technology, Owerri Imo State Nigeria. Applying HOMER software, this study presents an analysis for choosing the best hybrid RET system that can be best suited for this purpose. Firstly, the hourly load demand pattern of the building is studied and suitably modeled. With HOMER simulations, the optimized sizing of Hydro power (HP), solar photovoltaic (SPV) and Biogas (Methane) generator systems are obtained. On the basis of the minimized cost of energy (COE) generation obtained, HOMER results show that the solution is sustainable and techno-economically viable. The hybrid RET system selected by HOMER for this load center scenario from the various other prospective combinations of the sensitivity analysis is a combination of 67.4kW HP, 5kW SPV, 1kW biogas generator and1 Battery having a COE generation of $0.131/KWh which is equal to N20.96/KWh.