Impact of Capacity Shortage on The Feasibility of PV-Wind Hybrid Systems in Africa

Reliable optimization of renewable energy system is the one that balances between electrical sizing of the system components in order to satisfy the load and the cost of that system. This techno-economic optimization can be assured by HOMER software through some sensitivity parameters such as capacity shortage. For Saharan villages in Africa, it is required to install off-grid power systems with low cost. To fulfill this requirement, is it necessary to avoid the over-sizing of system due to high and short peaks of load, so the optimization of PV-wind hybrid system on this article is done with sensitivity analysis of the system for different capacity shortage rates. The only rates that do not exceed the mean values of electrical outage of Algeria are 0 % and 0.5 %, and HOMER had favorited the optimal system with 0.5 % of capacity shortage due to the 18 % gain in total cost of system and the energy cost. The results achieved on this article encourage on techno-economical optimizing PV-wind hybrid systems with acceptable capacity shortage and electrical outage rates for a better economic feasibility in Saharan villages.