ENERGY MODELING FOR OFF GRID ELECTRIFICATION OF CLUSTERS OF VILLAGES

Abstract

Many areas of the country are so isolated that extension of the power grid • to such areas may not be economical. Providing electricity to these areas is important not only for meeting the energy demands of the area but also for improving the quality of life and reducing migration from villages to cities. The diminishing fuel resources make it necessary to search for and harness new sources of energy in order to ensure a secured - supply of energy to remote villages. Energy modeling for off-grid electrification of remote rural areas using abundantly available solar, biomass, wind and hydro energy resources has been found to be the ideal solution for meeting the energy demands of the people in cost effective manner. In the present study, the various models for integrated renewable energy system(IRES) have been studied and linear programming method has been developed to design a off grid energy model of remote hilly areas. In the -present work, it was proposed to take up energy modeling, studies for five remote villages in the district of Uttarkashi of Uttaranchal. These villages neither have the electricity nor the access/approach road. Based upon the potential assessment and energy demand data, a JAVA computer programme has been developed for computing the cost of energy. The programme also facilitated to compute the minimum cost of energy for different demand scenario. The programme developed is a user friendly and can be used for the computation of cost function for optimization of IRES..