Design of a Microgrid for Residential Application Using HOMER Software

Abstract

The conventional grid has significant transmission losses. Power generation using conventional sources causes environmental degradation. Renewable energy-based distributed generators form microgrids (MGs). The MGs are environmentally friendly, cost-effective, reliable, and secure solutions for community loads. A residential load of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is considered in this study. The resource availability is taken using NASA surface metrology based on the location. An MG is designed using HOMER, taking solar, wind, battery, and converter components. The optimization results for MG architecture are obtained from simulation, taking NPC and COE as a constraint. Moreover, the optimized cost is calculated for the best proposed MG architecture. There is an annual net sale of 2,851,796 kWh of energy. The share of renewable energy for the most efficient planned microgrid is 84.6%. The energy used throughout a year is shown in the time series plot.