Feasibility and Environmental Effects Study of Adding Micro Hydro Power Plant, Converter and Batteries to Diesel Generators Using in Electrification a Remote Iraqi Village

This paper presents the economic and environmental benefits from using hybrid generation system in electrification the rural areas, which they are remote from the electric grid and located beside the river. In these areas Electrical Energy is generated, if any, by diesel generators. The proposed system in this work (which is used for electrification of an Iraqi remote village) consists of Micro Hydroelectric Power Plant, two diesel generators, converter and batteries as energy storage system. Homer (A National Renewable Energy Laboratory software (NREL) - USA) is used to simulate the system to obtain the optimum hybrid power system configuration. Three cases are compared, the first one is by using the two diesel generates alone, the second is by adding Micro Hydroelectric Power Plant to the first case and the third case is by adding converter and batteries to the second case. The results of simulation showed that the third hybrid power system case is the best configuration by reducing the cost of electric power unit (kilowatt / hour) as well as reducing the level of air pollution and noise.