OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE OF MULTIPLE ENERGY SOURCES UNDER VARYING DISPATCH STRATEGIES ON A 4G BASE TRANSCEIVER STATION

The instability of grid supply and the high cost of diesel are the key drivers for alternative use of renewable energy resources for powering base transceiver stations (BTS). This paper, therefore, focused on the design and performance estimation of different energy systems for powering a BTS using a site in Oyo State, Nigeria as a case study. The study first considers the possibility of supplying the BTS through the photovoltaic (PV) array, before exploring the integration of a micro-gas (mGGen) generating system under different dispatch strategies such as load following (LFDS), cycle charging (CCDS) and combined dispatch (CDDS) approaches. The location’s solar irradiance and ambient temperature alongside the BTS load profile served as input into the hybrid optimization of multiple energy resources simulation tool employed for estimating the capacities of PV, battery, and inverter cum the system performance. The PV array’s yearly energy generation, the load served, and the unmet electric load were used to determine whether or not the mGGen should be integrated with the PV system for the load demand considered. For different daily demands of 546.44 and 162.44 kWh/d, results presented 200 and 60 kW PV arrays, 14,350 and 4,266 Ah battery banks, and 30 and 10 kW inverters, and 30 kW mGGen components. The contributions of the PV and the mGGen under the LFDS, CCDS, and CDDS are 3.19 - 33.7 % and 64.4 - 100 %, respectively, with no unmet load. The hybrid PV/mGGen under the LFDS and CCDS strategy gives a better performance in terms of realizing a high RE contribution and the highest fuel and emissions saved to the tune of 16,555 m3/yr and 31,963 kg/yr, respectively, compared to 70,981 m3/yr of gas and 137,042 kg/yr being consumed and emitted by running the BTS entirely on the mGGen system. The initial cost, cost of energy, and the net present cost of the hybrid systems range from $ 12,197 to $ 175, 339, $0.149 to $ 0.423, and $ 301,353 to $966,429, respectively.