Improved utilization of hybrid energy for low-income houses based on energy consumption pattern

Abstract

The adoption of solar photovoltaic and small wind turbine hybrid energy systems in residential applications has picked up promising development around the globe. However, the uncertainty of renewable energy generation associated with the reliance on climate conditions is one of the factors which affect the reliability of the system. Therefore, there is a need to develop an energy management scheme for improving the reliability of the system. One of the drawbacks of hybrid renewable energy systems is the high investment cost, particularly looking at low-income family units. This present paper, an extension of the preceding work, focused on the development of an energy utilization scheme of a hybrid energy system particularly for low-income houses based on energy consumption patterns. The utilization scheme is developed using computational methods in a MATLAB environment. Energy storage systems considered in this work are electrochemical batteries and small-scale flywheel energy storage (kinetic energy storage). Utilizing hybrid energy based on consumption patterns has lowered the capacity of the system's components, resulting in a 0.00 investment cost. The flywheel energy storage is prioritized to supply high-wattage loads while the battery is prioritized to supply average loads, resulting in a 33.9% improvement in battery health. This hybrid system contains a high proportion of renewable energy and reduces annual electricity costs by 96.7%. The simulated results on MATLAB software showed an improvement in terms of energy utilization of a hybrid power system. The cost of utilizing energy is reduced by effectively utilizing more renewable energy sources, with a resultant reduction in electricity bills.