Impact of Diesel Generator Integration on the Economic Performance of Rural PV Microgrids

Abstract

Photovoltaic microgrids are a promising solution to improve electricity access in Africa, but the investment required for photovoltaic panels and batteries often remains substantial. Integrating a diesel generator can reduce the required photovoltaic and battery sizes, lowering the overall system cost. Here, a modeling and linear optimization framework is proposed to jointly optimize the sizing and operation of microgrid components to minimize the overall lifecycle cost while satisfying users’ energy needs. Compared to existing research on the topic, the main contributions lie in a more detailed modeling of the diesel generator using a piecewise linear function and in considering multiple possible rated powers for the diesel generator. The approach is applied to a rural village in Madagascar. The results indicate that integrating a diesel generator significantly lowers the life-cycle cost (from 267 to 134 k €), while meeting the same energy demand. Future work will include environmental criteria in the optimization.