Techno-economic assessment of photovoltaic along with battery power supply for health centers

Abstract

In developing countries, electrical power distribution networks are often inadequate, particularly in small health centers. As a result, the electrical energy supplied by the grid is frequently interrupted. The productivity and quality of service delivered by these health centers to the people who live in these areas are severely affected by this issue. This issue can be resolved by incorporating battery storage systems along with renewable energy sources into the distribution system. The direct delivery of energy to customers is greatly aided by these renewable energy supplies. Partially, the grid supports such a system on a limited scale to guarantee the continuity of the energy supply. This study tried to resolve the problem due to these frequent power outages and its economic expenditures. To address the illustrated challenges, we tried to renovate the diesel generator with a solar and battery energy supply. The PVsyst software shows the average global solar radiation in the selected zone is$5.84\mathrm{kmh}/m^2/\mathrm{day}$. The annual energy demand for Gedeo health centers in 2023 is 3.32 MWH and the proposed PV-battery hybrid system has a 10.95 MWH capacity. Moreover, when we utilize a diesel generator the Capital cost (CC), Net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and payback period are 12 452.25$, 13 369.12$, 0.1$, and 10.7 years respectively. The economic assessment result of the proposed system is 4083$, 4727$, 0.059$, and 3.8 years consecutively. In southern Ethiopia, the annual emission from diesel generators alone, excluding the emission from the vehicles is close to 692 tons. Consequently, from the empirical economic assessment the installed solar energy is 90% more beneficial than the existing system.