Abstract:
This paper develops a model which can be used to
minimize the electricity cost of South African farms through the
usage of a wind pump with pico hydro generator and a borehole in
pumped hydro storage configuration referred to as “hydro
aeropower”. This model will optimally schedule the generation
power flow from the pico turbine given the demand, the state of
water level in the reservoir as well as the electricity pricing period.
This model can be implemented to control the power flow in small
farming activities where boreholes and windmill are available.
Therefore, the wind and groundwater resources can be effectively
used to locally produce electricity which can contribute to the
decrease of the systems’ total operation costs.
