In this study, hybrid renewable energy systems were designed to minimize the cost of electrical energy and harmful gas emissions in line with environmental and economic concerns. While the on-grid hybrid renewable energy systems were designed by providing optimum power dispatching between solar panels, wind turbines, a small hydroelectric power plant, and the main grid, off-grid systems were designed by completely disconnecting from the grid and adding a battery energy storage system. Therefore, data such as power demand, peak load, solar irradiation, wind speed, and river flow rate of a rural area in Turkey have been collected to realize the analyses of optimal hybrid energy systems in Hybrid Optimization Models for Energy Resources program. While on-grid systems provide very economical solutions, off-grid systems have become more environmentally friendly. By introducing grid usage restriction, carbon emissions in on-grid systems have also been reduced. Also, more feasible systems have been achieved by including various constraints such as sell-back capacity, shortage capacity, and the maximum number of wind turbines to fit in the area. Finally, the effects of the increase in the renewable energy capacities were examined by performing sensitivity analyses and positive economic and environmental contributions have been observed.
Cite this article as: M. Pürlü, S. Beyarslan and B. E. Türkay. On-grid and off-grid hybrid renewable energy system designs with HOMER: A case study of rural electrification in Turkey. Turk J Electr Power Energy Syst, 2022; 2(1): 75-84.