Techno-economic analysis of utilizing a directly-coupled photovoltaic water pumping system for domestic application in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper presents a techno-economic application of a directly-coupled PV-pumping system for domestic application in some selected rural communities in Nigeria. Four different rural communities were considered in Ogun State, Nigeria and data of volume of water requirement per household per day were obtained through the use of interview scheduled for the rural households. The system is properly sized such that the pump energy requirement is in tandem with the PV-system of the location. Six different submersible pumps of different ratings were considered for this study. The number of PV-arrays, controllers and the tank storage capacities for various pumps were also determined. MATLAB tool is used to simulate the system. The economic assessment of the system, which includes life cycle cost, energy cost of pumps and the cubic meter cost of water were also determined. The result reveals that the life cycle cost ranges from unit cost of energy ranges from unit cost of water per cubic meter ranges from for the various submersible pumps considered. The maximum power and voltage and the efficiency of the PV module selected for the analysis are 250 W, 24 V and 14%. Also, the result also reveals that the proposed system is more cost effective than the conventional public utility water cooperation in Nigeria. The study provides the design and simulation of PV-based water pumping system, which can be used for understanding planning water supply system for rural areas.