Introducing micro-grids in Lebanon: Renewable-based microgrids to replace diesel generators

The Lebanese electricity system system's deteriorating situation (mainly characterized by the daily long rationing hours), has led to the wide use of diesel generators by Lebanese citizens to compensate for the outage hours. Unfortunately, this has led to lower energy efficiency, higher cost of power production, and notably higher greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, a renewable-based micro-grid system is proposed, which provides the needed backup power at a lower cost and carbon footprint. In order to increase the flexibility of the system and decrease the payback time, the concept of sharing between houses is applied. Moreover, the extra generated power is injected into the national grid through the net-metering protocol. This feasibility study is applied to 3 types of houses in Lebanon (small, medium, and large). This system could pave the way towards the wide-scale implementation of micro grids and smart grids in Lebanon. In general, it has 3 times less payback period and 5-23 tons of annual CO2 reduction per house.