Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Sustainable Energy Systems
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1454281
This article is part of the Research Topic Quantifying the Ecosystem Impacts of Energy Systems View all articles

Achieving universal energy access in remote locations using HOMER energy model: A techno-economic and environmental analysis of hybrid microgrid systems for rural electrification in Northeast Nigeria

Provisionally accepted
Christopher G. Lewis Christopher G. Lewis 1Muzan W. Ijeoma Muzan W. Ijeoma 2*Rahimat O. Yakubu Rahimat O. Yakubu 3Benjamin N. Chukwu Benjamin N. Chukwu 3Hao Chen Hao Chen 2Michael Carbajales-Dale Michael Carbajales-Dale 4
  • 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Science, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, United States
  • 2 Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, United States
  • 3 The Brew-Hammond Energy Centre, College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
  • 4 Energy-Economy-Environment (E3) Sustainable Analysis Group, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The developing world continues to face substantial obstacles to achieving affordable and dependable electricity access. This issue is especially pertinent for Nigeria, where diesel generators are widely relied upon in urban and rural regions because of an underdeveloped and unreliable national grid. The lack of grid reliability is worsened in Northeastern Nigeria, an area plagued by conflict, extreme poverty, and grid infrastructure deterioration. This study investigates the feasibility of implementing community-scale microgrids in rural areas without grid connection access. It focuses on assessing the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of utilizing these microgrids to deliver inexpensive and dependable electricity to underserved populations to increase energy access. A case study was conducted in Kabuiri, a village with an estimated population of 2,300 residents and an estimated load demand of 610 kWh per day. A hybrid microgrid system was designed and optimized to meet the community's load demand using HOMER software, sized to produce 610 kWh/day of electricity with a renewable penetration of 99%. The optimal solar PV/battery/generator system had a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of $ 0.093 per kWh, a net present cost (NPC) of $266,709, and an annual operating cost of $9,110. The system contributed 1624 kg CO2 eq/year of global warming potential and 56.81 kg O3 eq/year of smog formation during operation. Sensitivity analysis showed that the system could effectively react to or adapt to substantial increases in diesel prices, requiring only marginal increases in PV capacity and reduced generator usage to maintain the most cost-efficient operation. Additionally, the system model can be adapted based on the population of the remote community without substantially impacting the LCOE, however, the NPC increases with increase in population size. This research will aid in increasing energy access in remote locations by providing insights to stakeholders and energy access project developers.

    Keywords: Hybrid Micro-grid Systems Design, life cycle cost, Levelized cost of electricity, Net present value, Financial mechanism, energy access, Remote locations, environmental assessment

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lewis, Ijeoma, Yakubu, Chukwu, Chen and Carbajales-Dale. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Muzan W. Ijeoma, Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.