Energy Optimization of Power Station for a Small Research Institute

Abstract

Renaissance University, Agbani has a research institute with internet facility that accommodates 200 computers for student training, research and browsing. This facility becomes impossible to run due to the inability of the public utility to provide steady, reliable and efficient power. A 250KVA generating set was denoted by the school Administration and latter installed for this facility. After the installation, the facility cut off from public utility and depends wholly on Diesel generator. From experience with the performance of the existing generating sets as regards emissions and operating costs due to high cost of maintenance and diesel, a hybrid system (Diesel-Solar PV) was proposed. This paper investigates and analyzes the economic and environmental benefits of the proposed project to existing diesel generator. From the analyses, the proposed system (solar PV-diesel) has less total net present cost and less emission as a result of less fuel consumption and higher efficiency operation of the diesel genset when compared to the existing system (diesel only).