Abstract:
Hydrokinetic hybrid systems are gaining more interest since hydrokinetic technology has proved to offer a cost-effective electrification solution. Very few research studies on sizing and optimization of micro-hydrokinetic-battery (MHK-B) based hybrid systems have been done. However, the authors did not explore the impact of different load profiles on optimal sizing and performance of the MHK-B hybrid system. In this study, the impact brought by different load profiles such as residential, commercial and industrial sectors on sizing and operation of a river based MHK-B hybrid system is investigated using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) software. HOMER Pro version 3.6.1 has been selected since it is equipped with hydrokinetic turbine module. The flowing water resource data obtained from a typical river of South Africa has been used as an input. Sample of load profile curves for residential, commercial, industrial have been used to estimate the daily load demands. The optimum configuration results indicated that for the same daily energy consumption, the type of a load profile affects the battery storage capacity, hydrokinetic turbine size, inverter and rectifier operational hours as well as the annual excess energy for the MHK-B hybrid system.
