Reliability of a small power system using solar power and hydro

This paper studies the availability of the electricity supply when the sources consist of a combination of solar energy and a small hydro installation. Instead of flow-of-river, a small reservoir is used. By not using the hydro energy during sunny periods, the natural flow-of-river fills up the reservoir for later use. A model for global solar radiation is proposed with an astronomical part (deterministic) and a meteorological part (stochastic). The meteorological part is based on a Markov model of the cloud coverage. The solar model does not require solar radiation measurements, just cloud observations. A case study has been performed for Timbuktu (16.75degreesN, 0.07degreesW) in which generation availability is simulated for four different cases: solar power only; solar power with storage; solar and hydro power and solar and hydro, power with storage. To be able to use exclusively renewable energy sources, a combination of sources is needed to secure the reliability of the supply. Using solar cells in combination with a small reservoir is favorable. Even with a weak flow the affect of the flow on the day time reliability is minor, but great benefits can be found for reliability during low load hours (night time). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.