Abstract:
Renewable energy is considered a viable solution for addressing the energy crisis and
environmental issues sustainably. However, instead of the huge potential available of
renewable energy resources in the under-study region, their potential undermining
imposes a utilization of traditional energy resources, which poses a lot of sustainability
and economic challenges. Focusing on almost 100% renewable fraction and solving
the sustainable energy access issues of almost 0.439091 million energy consumers,
this study proposes an integrative decision-making framework to carry technoeconomic-environmental
sustainability and optimal sizing of renewable dominated
hybrid autonomous standalone and grid-connected microgrids for 19 independent sites
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the aims of minimizing the Levelized cost of energy
(LCOE) and life cycle cost (LCC) through examination of available renewable
potential and regional forecasted load. The proposed research is carried out in four
folds. In the first fold, techno-economic planning and optimization are performed for
standalone systems, then with the aims of recovering the excess energy similar
procedure is performed for grid-connected configurations. In the second fold,
comparative analysis between standalone and grid-connected configurations is
presented. In the third fold, environmental analysis is performed, and forest absorbing
carbon analysis is evaluated to absorb the same GHG emissions. While, in the fourth
fold, sensitivity analyses are performed. Optimization results showed that from all
discussed configurations, for standalone systems, the PV system coupled with hydro
provides the most feasible results for overall configuration with average LCOE from
0.0359 $/kWh to 0.1185 $/kWh. Due to having a significant potential for hydel power,
the Northern zone remains the most feasible zone for investing in standalone
electrification experiencing an average LCOE of 0.1026 $/kWh. From grid-connected,
Southern and Northwest Zones, PV coupled with wind energy systems as a hybrid
solution proved to be most effective configurations with least LCOE ranging from
0.02589 $/kWh to 0.02763 $/kWh. From Northern Zone, all the hydel based
configurations showed a substantial revenue. From environmental analysis, Kohat
(MG-2) experienced the highest carbon emission i.e., 45,128 tonnes, thus require a
large forest area i.e., 4106.66 hectares to absorb the same emissions. In contrast, an
only PV or combination of PV and hydro offered a least almost zero tonnes of carbon
emissions i.e., 4304.72 tonnes and 4506.3 tonnes.
Developed integrated decision-making and sustainability assessment model can
provide a reference and pathway toward SDGs as well as to government and private
investors for investment decision making and policy optimization.
