Rural electrification using renewable energy resources and its environmental impact assessment

Integrating a group of generation units and loads into a microgrid improves power supply sustainability, decreases greenhouse gas emissions, and lowers generating costs. However, this integration necessitates the development of an improved energy management system. The microgrid distributes electricity among energy resources to optimize either the generating cost or the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions, or both at the same time. The low-cost energy supply requires a precise cost model for each energy component. This article aims to develop the generation cost model that incorporates renewable energy to lower the total operating cost and curb greenhouse gas emissions. The suggested optimization problem deals with the low-cost energy solution for the rural area of India. The proposed system used particle swarm optimization, a global optimization strategy, in the study. Minimum cost and emission scenarios are objective issues while operating with tolerable emissions, and costs are multi-objective of the present study. The outcomes of the scenarios are used to provide viable optimized solutions to multi-objective problems using the optimization technique. Finally, a battery bank’s potential to compensate for generation shortages while minimizing emissions is being studied. The study is performed on a microgrid comprising photovoltaic PV, diesel generator, battery, wind turbine, and an Indian rural scenario load profile. The finding suggested that the optimal configuration has a total net cost of operation is $59,195.61. The per-unit cost of energy is 0.20 $/kWh with a saving of CO2\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{CO}}_{2}$$\end{document} emission is 5994 kg/year. This modular feasibility analysis demonstrates that utilizing a hybrid energy system to power the planning is cost-effective. This research is anticipated to aid rural communities and other stakeholders in making well-informed decisions throughout the planning stages of similar initiatives.