Assessment and Optimization of “Flexy-Energy” Approach Case Study: Bilgo Village, Burkina Faso, West Africa

Abstract

Access to electricity is essential for infrastructural development, economic growth, and better living standards in any country. However, the access rate to reliable grid electricity services in West Africa remains very low when compared to developed countries in the world. This situation is even worst in rural communities because of the high cost of grid extension. In order to improve electricity access rate to rural communities in Burkina Faso, an approach has been developed known as the flexy energy concept at the International Institute for Water and Environment Engineering (2iE). This concept is composed of a PV/diesel hybrid system without a storage system. The storage unit is excluded due to the high investment cost of batteries and other environmental issues. However, for the management of the system, the storage aspect could be considered to support the load for a few hours of autonomy. In this study, three scenarios were investigated, such as PV/diesel with and without battery storage, and conventional standalone diesel generators for the same load profile by using HOMER software. From the optimization results obtained shows that the best optimal scenario is the PV/diesel/battery hybrid configuration, which has a Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of US$ 0.524/kWh, and a total net present cost (NPC) of US$ 1,177,376. The storage system for the optimal configuration composed of 72 batteries, which is capable of powering the load for about 8.12 hours of autonomy. Concerning the environmental impact assessment, the CO2 emission produced by the PV/diesel/battery system was reduced by 29.68% and 23.4% when compared to the scenario with conventional generators and the scenario with PV/diesel hybrid system without storage respectively. Moreover, in order to assess the effect of fuel prices on the LCOE and the NPC for the optimal system, a sensitivity analysis was performed. From the results obtained it is recommended that for energy management of the power plant in Bilgo village it is necessary to include an optimal storage unit in order to reduce the operating and maintenance cost of running diesel generators, reduce the excess electricity produced from the system, and as well minimize the emission produced by the system