Hybrid Off-grid Renewable Power System for Sustainable Rural Electrification in Benin

Abstract

Rural areas in Benin, as in many sub-Saharan Africa countries are marginalised, in term of electricity assess due to their remoteness from the grid and challenging to access despite most of the country population lives in those places. Lack of access to electricity is one of the leading reason that still restraint economic development and poverty reduction of rural areas. The scalability and universality of Renewable Energy (RE) offered a unique opportunity to power these communities through decentralised energy system, but RE suffered from their intermittent nature. This study aims to analyse the techno-economic feasibility of off-grid Hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for sustainable electrification in Fouay village, Alibori Division in Benin as well as analysing the market through two economic value, the Willingness To Pay (WTP) and Ability To Pay (ATP). The load demand is analysed through an onsite survey, solar radiation, wind speed is obtained from the meteorological centre and hydro resource estimated were uploaded in HOMER while setting the projects economics and constraints for optimisation and sensitivity analysis. The survey also included qualitative and quantitative questions related to household’s financial status and energy situation, used to compute the ATP and WTP of the community for electricity. The techno-economic analysis showed that Hybrid PV/DG/battery is the least cost optimal system with a Net Present Cost of $555492 and COE of 0.207$/kWh. It provides a reliable power supply with 0% unmet load and reduces battery costs by 30% compared to PV/battery system. In environmental view, it achieves 97% CO2 emissions reduction compared to standalone Diesel Generator with a high renewable fraction of 96.7%. PV/DG/Battery is found to be economically viable than grid extension with a breakeven even grid extension distance of -1.86km and COE lower than the national grid applied of 0.22$/kWh. The market analysis revealed in overall a great Willingness to Pay of households for the electricity and ability to pay for a cost of electricity of 0.45$/kWh higher than the COE of the design system. This study indicated off-grid HRES as, clean, reliable, and affordable technology to power in a sustainable manner the village of Fouay and need to be replicated in other areas of the country for generalisation.