Hybrid renewable energy systems design and techno-economic analysis for isolated rural microgrid using HOMER

Reliable supply of electricity in isolated rural areas is challenging due to the uneconomical accessibility of the national grid. The issue can be resolved with an isolated microgrid. This study presents an optimal design and techno-economic analysis of an isolated microgrid based on hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) for meeting the electricity demand of a rural area, 'Kanur,' Maharashtra, India. The proposed microgrid integrates the wind turbine (WT), solar photovoltaic (PV), biogas generator (BG), and battery energy storage system (BES). The HOMER software minimizes the net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE) to offer a reasonable cost-optimal design at desired system reliability. At 0.0 % capacity shortage, the optimal sizing of PV, WT, BG, and BES units are 113 kW, 22 kW, 17 kW, and 362, respectively. At capacity shortages of 0.0 % and 2.5 %, the optimal WT/PV/BG/BES configuration achieves an NPC of $529,459 and $399,680 with COE of 0.146$/kWh and 0.112$/kWh, respectively. Excess energy generation is 23 % and 13.9 % of total annual generation, respectively. The proposed HRES is 71.2 % more cost-effective than diesel generator (DG) supply. The sensitivity analysis highlights the impact of system parameter variations on component sizing, NPC, and COE, aiding in the most cost-effective design selection.