Development and Evaluation of Techno-Economic Renewable Energy Viability Index (TEREVI) for Sustainable Distributed Hybrid Mini-Grid Power Generation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Empirically, all notable past and existing renewable energy mini-grid projects in Sub-Saharan Africa have not been commercially sustainable, thus necessitating financial propping by government grants and external funding from donor agencies, else outright run-to-comatose after a few years of operation. A techno-economic evaluation of the proven and probable renewable energy resources cum technologies based on potentials in South-West Nigeria was carried out as a case study using a Multi-Criteria Decision Method (MCDM) based on an Analytical Hierarchical Program (AHP) scheme from which a comprehensive Techno-Economic Renewable Energy Viability Index (TEREVI) was developed.  A hypothetical 100 kW mini-grid power plant powered by 1 or more of the 8 2R renewable energy sources was designed. A technical feasibility analysis, followed by HOMER and MATLAB simulation, was carried out. The TEREVI was calculated and used for the Mutative Genetic Algorithm (MGA) scheme for each hybrid configuration. The TEREVI shows a mean of 0.756914 and a standard deviation of 0.075644 with Solar Photovoltaic, Solar–Thermal, Small Hydro, Bioenergy, and Offshore Wind technologies having above mean values and overall best ranking respectively for off-grid power generation and hybridization.  The overall results proved that the TEREVI energy model is a comprehensive technique for local and global application in techno-economically assessing, selecting, sizing, planning, designing, and optimizing off-grid power systems based on existing renewable energy resources and local variables for self-sustainable commercial mini-grids in Sub-Saharan Africa.