Rural electrification with hybrid renewable energy-based off-grid technology: a case study of Adem Tuleman, Ethiopia

Remote rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa are not usually connected to national grids through electricity, which is fundamental to the welfare and development of communities. To quench the energy demand, the communities are burning a huge amount of biomass every year, aggravating the existing global warming scenario and leading to health deterioration of women and children. Hence, the current global trend is to electrify communities using the renewable energy resources. Adem Tuleman is a remote rural village in the Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia with the absence of access to electricity. The study presented herein, was intended to investigate the optimal hybridization of wind, solar, and diesel systems for the electrification of Adem Tuleman. The village was observed to have an average 204.04 kWh/day energy demand with 31 kW/day peak load, 4.5 kWh/day deferrable load and 900 kWh/day peak deferrable load. Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed system was a feasible solution to electrify Adem Tuleman. A financial analysis indicated that the project would have an initial capital cost of $24,817.00, an operating and maintenance cost of $12,862.00, and a total net present value of $189,233.00. The minimum cost of energy obtained was $0.195/kWh. The result of this study confirms that the remote rural communities can be effectively electrified through the hybridization of green and conventional energy sources with minimal costs. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].