Techno-economic feasibility analysis of a hybrid off grid AC-DC microgrid to support a health clinic

Techno-economic analysis of off-grid hybrid AC-DC microgrids (HMGs) in desert areas has primarily focused on meeting the load demands in residential, household, domestic, and agricultural applications, while the healthcare sector has been comparatively less considered. These analyses contribute to the development of effective financial techniques. This paper presents a techno-economic design for an HMG that combines AC and DC elements such as diesel generators (DG), photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines (WT), batteries (BAT), and power converters (Conv) to satisfy the power demand of a rural health clinic with a daily load of 110 kWh, situated in the desert area of Nubian in Aswan, Egypt. The optimization of HMG is performed through HOMER Pro based on hourly wind speed, solar irradiance, and clinic load data to evaluate the cost of electricity, carbon emissions, loss of power supply probability, and renewable fraction. The results are compared across four different HMG combinations: PV/WT/BAT/Conv, DG/PV/BAT/Conv, DG/PV/WT/BAT/Conv, and WT/DG. The simulation outcomes indicate that the system incorporating the WT/DG/PV/BAT/Conv provides the most efficient techno-economic solution for meeting the clinic’s power demand. The optimal configuration includes 4 kW of DG, 10 kW of WT, 9 kW of PV, 36 batteries, and 16 kW of power converters. This system achieves the lowest 51.76 k$ of net present cost and 0.107 $/kWh of cost of electricity, 3051 kg/year of CO2 emissions, and a significant renewable contribution of 90.7 %. Furthermore, the sensitivity assessment verifies that the system costs are greatly affected by factors including solar radiation, wind speed, discount rate, and diesel cost.