Design & Simulation of

decentralised system using

“HOMER”
presented at TERI-School of Advanced Studies by

Aman Aggarwal
Proprietor at M/s R G SALES & Partner at REsources Consulting
Contact: aggarwal13.aman@gmail.com)
PRE-REQUISTES FOR USING HOMER

Basic Knowledge of Basic architecture

computer What is the renewable of solar power Conversion of $ in
operating purpose ? energy plants/wind INR
skills resources power plant
Why We need Decentralised RE System
Target set by MNRE to
Sustainable , reliable deploy 10GW through
& sufficient electricity decentralised
system(solar pv)

Need of
decentralised Basic quality of life &
Non revenue generator
productivity
renewable
energy system

To realize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy to ensure access to
affordable, reliable and modern energy for all.
 Community Based- Case Study
• Monthly charges Rs.120/household
• Location – Bihar
• Organisation TARA
• Equipments provided – one 5W led bulb, mobile charging (3-7W)

• Daily average energy consumption- 35Wh/household

• Monthly average energy consumption- 1050Wh/Household

SOURCE: Rise of the mini-grids: Solar projects are lighting up households beyond reach of main electricity grids [online]
Available at <//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/50662210.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst>
[accessed on 22.06.2017].
 What are the gaps???

Tariff’s charged are very high

Traditionally off-grid Rural consumer spend Two villages adjacent

generation has been Rs.200-300 on State discom's are in to each other have
approached by single kerosene for huge loss huge difference in
technology** tariff
lighting purpose

SOURCE:
*Rural energy acess in IndiaReport IEA,2017
**An application of HOMER, Subhes C. Bhattacharyya,2013
Why HOMER???

Best combination of Caters demand Net Present value Simulation,

RET +Conventional growth , increase in & Optimization &
sources fuel price Cost of electricity Sensitivity

• Simulation: Estimates the cost and determines the feasibility of a system design over
8760 hours
• Optimization: Simulate each system configuration and display list of systems sorted by
NPC/COE
• Sensitivity Analysis: Perform an optimization for each sensitivity variable.
HOMER IS A “SOS”
• HOMER is a SIMULATION model.
• It simulates a viable system for all possible combinations of the
equipment which are considred.
• HOMER simulates more than hundreds of systems.
• OPTIMIZATION- The optimization step follows all simulations.
• HOMER fundamentally is an economic optimization model.
• SENSITIVITY - Allows us to model the impact of variables that are
beyond our control, such as diesel costs, wind speed, etc, and see
how the system reacts with these variations giving out optimum
results.
HOMER
Input site cordinates
Why NPC COE
Input load profile
• In case of thermal • The concept of
Input time and daily variability in data loads its better to COE is simple
focus on NPC as enough - it's the
COE can be average cost per
Select RET component
misleading. kWh of electricity.
Input cost, O&M, salvage value, other
relevant parameters

Run simulation

Optimized results with several viable options

Interface of Homer Pro Micro Grid Analysis
tool.
Component & its resource
What is a load
• A portion of system that consumes energy
• Electrical (primary load)
• Deferrable load (example: water pumping/battery charging)
• Thermal
• Load can be added in time series file.
• Data can be loaded upto gap of 1 minute.
• HOMER detects the time step based on number of rows in the file.
Example: if 8760 lines- assumes data to be Hourly data
 Case studies
(HOMER simulations)
(i) Community -Standard load profile and values in HOMER
(ii) Community-Synthesized load profile and benchmark values
 Benchmark costs

• Benchmark cost for solar stand-alone power projects (by Mercom India Research)
• Upto 10kW with 6hrs battery backup – INR100/Wp(for general states)
• Upto 10kW with 3hrs battery backup – INR80/Wp (for general states)
• Benchmark cost for Li-Ion battery (by EAI)
• $200/kWh or INR 14000/kWh
Site Details
Village name
/State Households elec. Household elec. level
Afjalpur
bhau/Uttar
Pradesh 128 5 3.9% Solar radiation Annual Wind speed
Annual solar irradiation 5.4kWh/ m2/ day Average wind speed of 3.7m/s

LOAD PROFILE
14
12 12
HOUSEHOLD 128 12 11 10.5
AVG DAILY HOUSEHOLD POWER CONSUMPTION 10
Power
8 7 7
Equipment consumption(W) Time(hrs) Energy (Wh) 6
6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
led bulb in W 3 7.5 22.5
led bulb in W 7 5 35 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

FAN 70 12.5 875 2

AVG DAILY ENERGY CONSUMPTION PER 0

12PM-1PM
1PM-2PM
2PM-3PM
3PM-4PM
4PM-5PM
5PM-6PM
6PM-7PM
7PM-8PM
8PM-9PM
9PM-10PM
10PM-11PM
11PM-12PM
12AM-1AM
1AM-2AM
2AM-3AM
3AM-4AM
4AM-5AM
5AM-6AM
6AM-7AM
7AM-8AM
8AM-9AM
9AM-10AM
10AM-11AM
11AM-12PM
HOUSEHOLD(Wh) 932.5
Total energy consumption in village(kWh) 119.36

SOURCE:
• NASA METREOLOGICAL DATA BASE, HOMER
• Assumed load profile
• Rural electrification corporation, garv portal
 Case 1

Assumptions Total annual

HOMER defined
average
energy
Time step variation of requirement
Load factor
20%

Diesel price is kept DG rated capacity

constant rs.60/litre

*run time &

Day to day variability of Solar capacity & Wind
units
10% Capacity generated
by DG.

Source: HOMER simulation

Learnings

100% renewable
Carbon footprints
energy hybrid
can be evaluated
systems may have
of the existing
high initial cost as
projects
well as COE

New off grid

system should be Audit can be done
designed such of the existing
that they are grid micro-grid
compatible
Thank You