The electricity demand andsupply in El Espino : Alternatives for diversification of renewabletechnologies

Sammanfattning: The use of alternative fuels, particularly renewable energy sources, has been an important strategy to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions. In Bolivia, many rural areas struggle with an unreliable power supply. The most common electricity solution in such isolated areas is to have off-grid systems, where hybrid systems have become a feasible solution. In this study, a hybrid system in the rural village El Espino is optimized using a linear programming tool called MicroGridsPy. Currently, the village is powered by a hybrid system consisting of solar photovoltaics, a diesel generator and lead-acid batteries as a storing system. To optimize the system in a sustainable way, considering economic, environmental and social aspects, two wind turbines of the nominal capacities 5 and 10 kW are studied and introduced to the hybrid system. To find synergies between the wind and solar energy, the irradiance and wind speed of the study area are simulated using a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The power output from the wind turbines can then be obtained by modelling the power curves and then be added to the optimization model. The optimization is performed both with and without the wind turbines to evaluate the impact of them. In the optimization model, characteristics of the components, techno-economic parameters, including investment costs, and constraints such as renewable penetration, and cost of the curtailment are set. The obtained results include that the wind speed is higher during the winter season, and that the wind power output, regardless of turbine size, is proportional to the wind speed. Furthermore, the 10 kW wind turbine is proven to be the most suitable for the system of the two compared. The economical values of the system, such as NPC and LCOE are higher, the higher the renewable penetration, but lower for the system with wind turbines. This implicates that adding wind energy to the hybrid system could be beneficial from both an environmental and economical point of view. One conclusion that can be drawn is that wind turbines are a feasible technology for rural electrification, and that the optimization tool is sensitive to cost. Furthermore, it is found that the wind and solar energy are suitable complements to each other both season wise and daily.