Design and analysis of a DC microgrid for a village in Ghana

Renewable energy systems are increasingly becoming vital to addressing the energy needs of villages, as access to electricity is crucial to human development. Availability of resources, reliability, and sustainability are important during the decision-making process. This thesis focuses on the design and analysis of a renewable energy-based DC microgrid for a rural community in Ghana. The work uses detailed site-specific data, including demographics, resources, infrastructure constraints, and estimated local energy usage, to model the power system using HOMER Pro. The proposed hybrid system consists of a 102kW photovoltaic system, a 24.3kW wind energy system, a 30kW diesel generator, and a 289kWh battery energy storage system. The system uses a 50kW converter to invert the DC power to supply AC loads. The modeled system achieved a 98.6% renewable fraction, a net present cost of $250,689.00, and approximately 7 years with a 35.4% return on investment. The study further conducted a dynamic simulation to evaluate the system’s transient performance, stability, and control response to varying operating conditions in MATLAB/Simulink. The dynamic simulations demonstrated effective voltage regulation, load adaptability, and system stability in response to changes in solar irradiance, wind speeds, and load changes. Finally, a data logger was designed to capture real-time operational data and support performance analysis of the system.