Solar Diesel Hybrid Mini-Grid Design

Considerations: Bangladesh Perspective

ASM Mominul Hasan#1, Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury#2
1&2
Centre for Energy Research, United International University (UIU)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
1
mominul.hasan@hotmail.com
2
shahriar.ac@gmail.com

Abstract With the declining price of solar PV panels and
increasing price of diesel make the solar PV system popular for
rural electrification. The demand of electric energy in rural areas
is minimum and also the loads are sparsely distributed. So, it is
not economically viable to extend the national grid line to the
remote off grid areas. Also there are islands where the grid
extension is not economically feasible. Electricity access in rural
Bangladesh is less than 50%. IT is the common tendency of the
rural people to live in clustered areas. So, it is very common to
see the clustered households in rural Bangladesh. These paved
the options for electrification of off grid areas with small isolated
solar minigrids. One of the challenges of developing minigrids is
the storage system management. Incorporation of a small diesel
generator not only reduces the requirement of storage system but
also can provide energy in low insolation days. This paper
highlights the design consideration for developing solar diesel
hybrid minigrids in rural areas of Bangladesh.
. improve their quality of life. At the same time, these projects,
Keywords Solar PV, Hybrid, mini-grid, load factor, Storage
I. INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is a power starving country with around 50% of the
population having no access to grid electricity [1]. Extension of
grid network to remote places for a country like Bangladesh is
very expensive due to high generation and transmission cost
and due to poor load factors in rural areas. Effective use of
electricity (load factor) in rural households is less than 40%.
Commerce and industry are not yet developed in the rural areas
and contribution of electricity consumption from these sectors
is not expected to be high. With increased awareness of the
adverse effect of global warming due to green house gas
emission, efforts are made all over the world to curb the green
house gas emission by increasing energy generation from
renewable energy (RE) resources. In line with the global effort,
Bangladesh has taken a plan to generate 5% of total power
generation (~500MW) from renewable sources by 2015. This
share will go up to 10% (2000MW) by 2020 [2]. As
renewable sources are still expensive, it is still not clear how
much RE sources can be tapped within the next 3 years to meet
the set target. As far as RE resources in Bangladesh are
concerned, solar is possibly the only resource that can be
harnessed effectively and has wide spread application at this
stage. However, even with the current downward trend of PV
price in the world market, still PV based grid power generation
cost is significantly higher than the gas/coal fired grid energy
price. Thus, the grid expansion, based on RE resources is
expected to be slow for the next few years. However, with the
gradual increase in the price of fossil fuel, the cost of
generation of electricity from solar PV will be competitive with
the cost of generation of electricity from fossil fuels. On the
other hand, in rural areas there is great demand for power for
meeting the basic needs like lighting and cooling (i.e. cooling
fan) of the rural household. To have access to electricity,
People in the off grid areas are prepared to pay a much higher
price than the grid electricity. This opens up the opportunity to
install small sized mini-grid for localized populous areas in off
grid areas/villages. Such small scale projects will provide
electricity to the rural people and can contribute significantly to
when designed properly, can be sustainable and economically
viable. In context of Bangladesh there are some considerations
to be taken into account to design a mini-grid. Based on our
practical experience of designing mini-grid and field
experience of survey for mini-grids in rural area of Bangladesh
a mini-grid designing guideline is given in this paper.
II. KEY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Mini-Grid design considerations are the key parameters to
design a mini-grid in a specific location. As the cost of energy
of renewable energy sources are still not as cheap as
conventional energy thus some considerations can be made
according to actual scenario of the project location designing
expertise for minimizing the cost of energy and increasing
sustainability. Figure 1 shows some of the salient
considerations of designing mini-grid in context of rural
Bangladesh.
Renewable energy fraction: higher renewable energy
fraction minimizes the running cost for a renewable energy
based power plant for example cost of fuel.
Productive use of solar power: during daytime income
generating activities like Solar irrigation, Cottage industries,
Husking mills, Sawmills, Grinding mills (for spice) and
powering rural marketplace enhance the productive use of
solar power as this power does not include the cost of storage
system or cost of fuel. Day load also work as cost reduction
potential.
Battery Management: A diesel generator helps to reduce the would be such that there is very little possibility of grid
size of the storage system for a mini-griid. Because of the electricity in the near futuure. Secondly, interest and
backup generator no autonomy day needed to t be considered. affordability of electricity by thhe local people of the site as the
Selection of Technology: Different technoologies of mini-grid energy cost (Tk: 26-35*) is muuch higher than the energy cost
power system are available worldwidee. In context of (avg Tk. 6-9) of grid electricitty [3]. Average family income
Bangladesh, cost of technology matterss. Sometimes the and profession of the adults of the location reflect the interest
adapted technology controls the energy pricce. and affordability of electricity. For example, It is observed
from the site survey that there are some areas where people
RE are struggling to lead their liveliihood with the minimum living
fraction standard in some season of the year. In contrast, some off grid
Financial places are found to be economiccally developed and people are
Selection of Analysis willing to pay any possible am mount for electricity round the
Technology year. Thirdly, present energy sccenario, this plays a vital role to
encourage people to have acceess to electricity. In some off
grid areas people use fossil fuel f (kerosene) to meet their
Mini-grid lighting demand, in some areass diesel generators are used to
provide electricity for some hoursh per day. Besides these,
Cost several diesel generators are ussed by several shop owners for
Reduction
Productive captive consumption. Average tarifft rate being charged to the
Potential
use of Solar customers by the diesel operaators currently range between
Power BDT 60 to 70 per kWh. Banggladesh is a densely populated
Battery
Managem country so use of land only for soar
s PV installation may not be
ent feasible considering the crop yiield per year. In the case where
land is very costly, south facinng rooftops of rural household
can be an alternative solutionn for installation of solar PV
Figure 1: Mini-Grid Design Considerations panels. Finally, load assessmentt is the most indispensable tool
to determine the size of the poower plant. In context of rural
While designing the minigrids systems one has to follow the Bangladesh, lighting and coolinng loads are the major gadgets
sequence depicted in the figure 2. of the energy consumption. In I addition, nowadays mobile
phones, televisions and refrigerrators are getting popularity as
potential loads.

DEMAND ASSESSMENT
1 2 3 4 Demand assessment in rural area quite challenging. Rural
Site Survey Load Technicaal Financial people are not familiar with elecctrical loads other than lighting
for Demand Design Analysis and cooling. They are sometim me biased by those who live or
Feasibility Assessment frequently visit urban or city areea. They want to use loads like
Study TV, DVD and refrigerator withhout any idea about their power
consumption. This scenario does d not give the actual load
demand which makes the designn difficult. Very careful insight
should be there to assess the ratiional load demand. It is wise to
count the number of rooms in the t households and how much
they are paying for kerosene or o diesel generator for meeting
Figure 2: Design steps for solar mini-grids their present demand.
Packages: To overcome acttual load assessment barrier
different packages should be defined for different types of
SITE SURVEY AND SURVEY ITEMS users according to their income level. The packages should be
designed using energy efficientt loads for example LED lamp,
Site survey is the initial requirement to thinkk about a mini-grid high efficient cooling fans etc. Furthermore, to settle the load
for a specific location. Survey findings show the feasibility of for package a relation betweeen monthly energy price and
a project in present and future context. Parrameters for survey existing monthly kerosene cost for lighting should be analysed,
vary from one location to other. Some parrameters should be so that the people can realize their expenses. Based on the
satisfied for designing a minigrid in a parrticular location of survey findings the followingg consumer packages can be
Bangladesh. Firstly, remote and isolated loccations are ideal for offered to the mini-grid beneficiaries. The following table
mini-grid site. Generally island, remote viillage those are far shows the breakdown of eacch package according to the
away from national grid network. Lifetim me of a solar diesel
hybrid mini-grid is considered for 20 yearss therefore, the site
demand of rural household. Table 1 shows different packages from the solar PV system except the rainy or foggy days. Thus
containing their load and quantity of loads. can avoid the requirement of higher storage requirement.
Night Load: The main challenge to run a mini-grid when
Package Gadget Type Watt (W) Quantity energy production reduces in the afternoon. To keep the
LED light 7 3 supply of power after the sunset it is essential to continue the
Package 1 power supply either from a storage system or by running a
Ceiling Fan 25 1
LED light 7 4 diesel generator. On the other hand, the main load demand
Package 2 Ceiling Fan 25 2 rises in the evening because maximum lamps and other
TV 50 1 electric gadgets turn on together. So, it is indispensible to
LED light 7 6 calculate night load perfectly to determine optimum size of
Package 3 Ceiling fan 25 2 storage system and run time of generator.
TV 50 1 Peak Load: In general, the peak loads are experienced in the
LED light 7 6 evening. The size of off grid inverters and generator are
dependent on the night load.
Ceiling Fan 25 3
Package 4 Seasonal variation: During summer demand of electricity is
TV 50 1
maximum as cooling load adds with the lighting load,
Refrigerator 100 1
moreover, the run time of cooling load is much higher than
Package-6 LED light 7 10 that of lighting load. On the contrary, during winter, cooling
School & Ceiling Fan 25 20 load goes off thus the demand of electricity is quite lower than
College summer. Furthermore, in context of rural Bangladesh winter
Package-7 LED light 7 1 season lasts longer than urban area. Considering these
Industrial Ceiling Fan 25 1 seasonal variations plant size varies. Taking into account all
(Saw mills, Motor 4000 1 these seasonal load variation a source of power should be
Lathe m/c) designed that can provide reliable power throughout the year.
Table 1: Distribution of loads for different package The graph below shows the estimated load profile in summer
and winter of Bangladesh for a 200kWp solar diesel power
Load factor: Rural economy of Bangladesh is mostly plant according to survey data. During summer our irradiance
dependent on agriculture. People of the rural area work in is higher than winter, on the contrary during summer our
their land all day long and they fall asleep early. However, the irrigation demand is highest. So, additional power generation
scenario may not remain the same after electrification; from solar PV system can be used for irrigation.
therefore, the load factor needs to consider in such way so that
the designed size of the plant would be able to serve demand
up to a certain period of time. An optimum load factor for Winter load profile Summer load profile
each type of load for designing mini-grid are given in figure 60
below which is based on the demand assessment survey 50
conducted in different region of rural Bangladesh. The
kW Load

40
demand of cooling fans are almost nil during the winter. 30
20
LED light Ceiling Fan TV Refrigerator
10
0.8 0
Load Factor

0.6 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
0.4 Hour
0.2 Figure 4: Estimated Load profile of a 200kWp Solar Diesel
0 hybrid mini-grid.
4 am - 5 pm 5 pm - 11 pm 11 pm - 4 am Overall
Hour of Day

Figure 3: Considered load factor for different load to be used
in designing mini-grids [summer loads]
Day Load: Cost of energy in solar-diesel mini-grid power
system is quite high and the main reason behind this is high
price of storage system and cost of diesel. It is possible to
reduce the energy cost in a tolerable limit by increasing the
day load. Energy can be supplied directly to the day loads
II. SYSTEM DESIGN
Survey data shows that the demand reaches to its peak after
sunset and it generally lasts till 10 pm. The system should be
designed in such a way that can be able to handle the peak
hour load for a certain period of time of a day. For a solar
diesel hybrid mini-grid with battery backupp the source solar is
the main source and the generator kept as a backup or standby
source. Daily average generator run time depends upon the
shortfall in the solar energy and degree of storage in the
battery bank. The solar diesel hybridd mini-grids are
predominantly powered by solar photovooltaic systems and
monthly generation from the PV can be deetermined from the
monthly average radiation data. Hourly average expected
demand data is determined from the surveyy result. Day load is
considered from 9 am in the morning till 6 pm in the evening.
Sometimes during overcast or rainy or fogggy days the demand
of the day load is lower than the generatedd PV energy, so in
the battery capacity calculation the day loaad is excluded. The
night load is served by stored energy in thet battery through
inverter which is charged by PV power in daytime and if
necessary from the generator. The generaator will run only
when the battery voltage is near to the lowerr cut off value. The
generator is run to share the load wheneveer PV output is not
sufficient to meet the energy demand. If necessary (only in
emergency case) the generator will run to charge the battery.
As the system contains a diesel generator, soo no autonomy day
is considered for the storage system. The figure
f below shows
the schematic diagram of a solar-diesel hybrrid minigrid.
Figure 5: Single line diagram of Solar-diessel minigrid system
for off grid rural area electrification.
III. CONC
CLUSION
Solar diesel hybrid minigridd systems if designed properly
can serve off grid area with gridd quality electricity. Increase of
day loads reduces the requiremeent of storage system, which in
turn reduces the cost of elecctricity. Addition of a diesel
generator further reduces the sizes of storage system. It also
helps to avoid the need of o autonomy days. Demand
assessment is one of the most important
i criteria for designing
a minigrid for rural areas. The demand
d or consumption pattern
of a particular area solely dependent on the socio-economic
condition of that area. One model designed for a particular
area cannot be directly used forr another area. Eash individual
areas should be individually suurvey for demand assessment.
Installation of solar PV basedd minigrids not only provides
electricity to the rural off grid areas
a but also reduces the GHG
emission. Cost of electricity in a minigrid can be kept within
tolerable limit by designing it properly. Provision of future
expansion should be there to avvoid the system overload. The
costs of electricity of isolateed mini-grids are more than
national grids, so the use of higgher efficient electrical gadgets
can reduce the monthly consum mption.
REFEREENCES
[1] Auunual Report 2010-11, Banngladesh Power Development Board,
Ministry of Power Energy andd Mineral Resources, Government of
Bangladesh, .
[2] Renewable Energy Policy of Banngladesh, Power Division, Ministry of
Power Energy and Mineral Reesources, Government of Bangladesh,
December, 2008.
[3] Retail Electricity tariff for all uttilities, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory
commission, Ministry of Powerr Energy and Mineral Resources. 29th
March, 2012.