Modeling of a hybrid renewable power system for Calayan Island, Cagayan using the HOMER software

The island of Calayan is locared 39 kilometers from the Babuyan Island directed west-south-west off the coast in the Philippines. Grid connectivity is nearly impossible since the island is far away from the mainland based on geographic location. The electricity demand in the area is fulfilled by stand-alone diesel generators but for limited hours only. Fortunately, a reliable and continuous supply of electricity is possible because the island is rich with renewable energy sources such as hydro, wind and solar. In this study, an attempt has been made to model a hybrid renewable power system to supply the electricity demand of the island in a reliable and sustainable manner. This hybrid system incorporates a combination of solar PV, wind turbines, diesel generators, micro-hydro plant and batteries. HOMER software is used to analyze and find out the best possible configuration based on the available renewable sources in the area. A 50 kW solar PV, 50×10 kW wind turbines, 1×180 kW and 1×120 kW diesel generators, 450×2 kWh batteries, 250 kW hydroelectric plant and a 150 kW converter hybrid system are found to be the best among all other configurations in terms of net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE). This configuration gives the lowest COE at P11.89/kWh and NPC of P236M with a renewable fraction of 88%.