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Design and Simulation of Off-Grid Solar/Mini-

Hydro Renewable Energy System using Homer
Pro Software: Case of Muyuka Rural Community
Tamanjong Fru Fofang Emmanuel Tanyi
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Buea University of Buea
Buea, Cameroon Buea, Cameroon

Abstract— Electrification in remote areas is the central grid. This approach is technically and financially
constrained by technical barriers like long-distant transmission inefficient due to a combination of capital scarcity, poor
network, rugged terrains, and highly dispersed population. The energy service, reduced grid reliability, extended building
low population density characterised by a low level of education periods and construction challenges to connect to remote
implies low load density and low revenues. These characteristics areas. The governments and other funders have recognised
hinder investors from investing in the rural sector. In many
parts of Cameroon, electricity generation is often non-existent or
that reaching rural communities through the expansion of the
unreliable and erratic. Cameroonian rural population national grid can be costly and slow – and is sometimes not
outnumbers urban inhabitants, and it is precisely in these rural feasible [1]. Adequately financed and operated mini-grids
regions that the lack of reliable infrastructures and services is based on renewable energy can overcome many of these
all the more problematic. These shortfalls are persistent and challenges.
structural, and the amount of capital required to fix them is
tremendous. The usual approach to centralised generation and B. Statement of the problem
distribution may not be able to solve this problem. Presently, The Republic of Cameroon has an ambitious target of
households and businesses that can afford resort to using diesel providing electricity to everyone in the so-called vision 2035.
generators which are not environmentally friendly and very This is intended to transform the country into a middle-
expensive to run. Replacing multitudes of diesel generators with income economy. Regarding renewable energies, Cameroon,
hybrid solar/mini-hydropower plants can substantially reduce in its National Development Contribution (NDC) to reduce
cost and climate impact. In this context, the development of off- greenhouse gas as part of COP21 (leading to the Paris
grid decentralised solar/mini-hydropower systems, or of systems
Agreement) decided to have 25% renewable energy in the
built around a mini-grid, proves to be appropriate. This solution
would help to stem the tide of people abandoning rural areas,
electricity mix by 2035, from less than 1% today [2].
which is a problem severely affecting the country. This paper is The development of renewable energies is one of the strategic
dedicated to the design and implementation of a hybrid plans for the reduction of poverty so that the country could
solar/mini-hydro renewable energy system for the rural end up with a developed economy. One way to contribute to
community of Muyuka Subdivision. The consideration evolved the realisation of this objective is in the design and
from being focused on the concept of hybridisation of implementation of a hybrid solar/mini-hydro renewable
photovoltaic (PV) and hydro-electric power plants. HOMER- energy system for rural electrification. Mini-grids can be
Pro is used for the simulation. HOMER-Pro integrates energised by using renewable energy based on hybrid system
components, resources and economic calculations. It simplifies
technology into which multiple combinations of renewable
the task of evaluating the design of off-grid for a variety of
applications. The result will be a suggestion on how the Muyuka
energy technologies can be integrated. Standalone systems
rural community could sustainably be electrified by using are costly to acquire and maintain [3]. Mixing different
renewable energy based off-grid power system. This technologies with different energy sources provides
contribution will be a vital tool to the policymakers and competitive advantages compared to using a single
implementers of renewable energy systems in Cameroon, technology. For example, the solar PV system peaks up when
considering the case of the Muyuka rural community. hydro generation drops during the dry season and vice versa.
The battery backup system adds stability to the network by
Keywords—Off-grid; decentralised solar/mini-hydropower storing the energy for peak consumption when there is
systems; mini-grid; Hybrid Renewable Energy System, HOMER- insufficient production from renewable sources.
Pro; Simulation. This template, modified in MS Word 2007 and saved as a
I. INTRODUCTION “Word 97-2003 Document” for the PC, provides authors with
most of the formatting specifications needed for preparing
A. Background of the study electronic versions of their papers. All standard paper
Electricity is an imperative condition for a country's components have been specified for three reasons: (1) ease of
development. Without electricity, people's livelihood options use when formatting individual papers, (2) automatic
are limited, access to essential services is restricted [1], and compliance to electronic requirements that facilitate the
quality of life is adversely affected. The traditional approach concurrent or later production of electronic products, and (3)
to serving rural communities with electric power is to extend conformity of style throughout a conference proceeding.

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Margins, column widths, line spacing, and type styles are hybrid system that includes solar PV/small hydro/storage
built-in; examples of the type styles are provided throughout systems is most appropriate for Cameroon, given that these
this document and are identified in italic type, within resources are abundant in the country.
parentheses, following the example. Some components, such
as multi-leveled equations, graphics, and tables are not II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
prescribed, although the various table text styles are provided. A. Study location
The formatter will need to create these components, Muyuka is a town in Fako Division in the Southwest
incorporating the applicable criteria that follow. Province of Cameroon as shown in fig. 1a. Muyuka is the
headquarter of the Muyuka subdivision. The specific
C. Objectives location is at 4°17.4ʹ N and 9°24.9ʹ E. The subdivision is
The main objective of this research is to develop a framework made up of mostly rural communities with sub-villages such
for the optimal design of a Renewable Energy System which as Owe, Ekata, Bafia, Muyenge, Yoke, Malende, Meanja and
incorporates mini-hydro and solar components for the Mpundo. Muyuka has a population of 86,268, with a rural
Muyuka rural community. This global objective entails the percentage of 67.5% [8]. Muyuka had a hydropower plant
following specific objectives: (1) To develop a hybrid constructed in 1947 at the yoke river known as the Yoke
solar/mini-hydropower model for the Muyuka rural hydropower Plant.
community and (2) To evaluate the performance of the
solar/mini-hydropower system performance based on system The Yoke Hydropower plant: Yoke had a hydropower plant
generation and load demand with a hydro capacity of 3.27MW constructed during the
period 1947 to 1949 [9]. It was part of the Electricity
Corporation of Nigeria, given that at the time, Southern
D. Literature Review Cameroons was being administered from Nigeria. The
The initial cost of microgrids is often a barrier to its installed power was 2.2MW but the peak demand at that time
development. The financial cost of distributed energy was only 1.59MW [9]. When the Southern Cameroons left
resources is perceived to be higher than that of a centralised Nigeria, the plant was taken over by POWERCAM
power generation system. Recent studies, however, have Corporation. The installation was dismantled after
found that the cost of generating power in a microgrid is reunification with La Republique du Cameroon. Presently,
comparable with present electricity supply as long as support with the advent of modern technology, the hydropower plant
for PV is available [4]. Again, instead of investing in new can be re-harnessed to serve as a mini-hydropower plant to
infrastructure to meet increasing demand, microgrids can be alleviate the regular acute power shortage bugging the
used to solve the peak load problems, especially in low load country. The scraps of POWERCAM remain standing in
density rural communities. In developing countries without Yoke village.
infrastructure like Cameroon, microgrids are more likely to
be cost-effective since the installation cost must be compared
with that of installing high voltage transmission lines. In the
grid-connected mode, the system voltage and frequency are
fixed by the primary grid. In islanded mode, keeping demand
and supply balanced to maintain voltage and frequency is a
huge task.
Various researchers have used different methods for design,
implementation and optimisation of the hybrid renewable-
based power system. Kenfack et al. [5] in the study
"feasibility analysis of solar photovoltaic and micro-hydro
hybrid power system with battery storage, at Batocha
(Cameroon)”, the authors compared different combinations of
component sizes and quantities. They explored how
variations in resource availability and system costs affect the
cost of installing and operating different system designs using
HOMER Pro software. Bilal Abdullah Nasir [6] in the
research “MATLAB simulation procedure for the design of
micro-hydroelectric power plant” concluded that, as micro-
power continues to grow around the world, it is essential to Fig. 1a. Muyuka subdivision, South West region, Cameroon [8]
show the public how feasible micro-hydro systems are in a
suitable site. Ashish S. et al. [7] in their study on Hybrid
Power Generation System concluded that to avoid
interruption of power by a standalone renewable energy
source, hybridisation of renewable energy sources is the key.
The hybrid energy system has good reliability, efficiency,
less emission, and lower cost. The papers reviewed shows the
degree of concern that scholars have towards this subject. A

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Fig. 1b. The Yoke river and the abandoned barrage Fig. 2: Community load profile
Solar and Hydro resources: The solar resources are obtained
B. Resource potential
from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory database as
Cameroon is blessed with enormous and varied resources for
shown in fig. 2. The site temperature profile is obtained from
electricity production. The hydraulic potential is estimated at
NASA surface meteorology and solar energy database. As
20,000MW according to the Energy Situation of Cameroon
shown in fig. 3, the average solar radiation is 4.49kW/m2/d,
(SEC, 2015) – of which only about 5% is exploited – the
and the average clearness index is 0.51. Figure 4 shows the
second-largest in Africa after the Democratic Republic of
site temperature profile. The existing data from [9] is used for
Congo [10]. The hydraulic potential is sovereign, as all the
the hydropower system design. The hydro scaled annual
rivers that can be used are within the frontiers of Cameroon
average flowrate is 22.17m3/s, and the minimum residual
and not shared with any neighbouring country. In the
flow is 1m3/s. Fig. 5 shows the hydro resource input.
electricity mix of Cameroon, solar/mini-hydro energy
contributes less than 1% of the 1,600MW generated [10].
Again, the average solar radiation in Cameroon ranges from
4.5kWh/m2/day in the southern part of the country to
5.7kWh/m2/day in the northern part of Cameroon with the
highest values in the Far North region [11]. Therefore, the
potential to harness solar/mini hydropower systems are
hugely available in the country. According to [9], the
hydropower capacity of the Yoke power plant is 3.27MW.
The considerations for this case study are to design a hybrid
solar/mini-hydropower system that can supply 3MW of
power to an a.c. Load. The hydropower system is expected to Fig. 3: Solar resource inputs
supply a peak power of 2MW in the rainy season and 1.2MW
in the dry season leaving enough residual flow for the
survival of biota. For a standalone hybrid system in which
the load depends on intermittent energy sources such as solar
and run-of-river hydropower systems, reliable backup
systems are necessary. In this project, a battery bank is
included to provide backup. The backup system also helps to
optimise the sizing of the hybrid system.
C. Data collection and load profile
Load demand: The rural population of Muyuka subdivision is Fig. 4: Site temperature profile
about 60000 [8]. With an average energy demand of less than
5kWh per month, the maximum demand of the community is
about 3MW. The site daily load profile, seasonal load profile
and yearly profile are shown in figure 2. The community load
profile for the project has a peak load of 3MW, including a
random variability of 10% daily and 20% timestep.

Fig. 5: Hydro resource input

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D. Equipment Selection and project optimisation Table 3: The converter model parameters
Photovoltaic Array: The PV modules used is generic. The PV Module parameter Value
Type Generic large free converter
array size is estimated from the load demand. The considered Lifetime 15 years
PV system rating is 1800kW, but the sizes considered for the Inverter can parallel with AC generator? Yes
simulation are 1500kW and 1800kW. The initial cost, Rectifier relative capacity 100%
replacement cost, operation and maintenance cost are Rectifier/Inverter efficiency 95%
adjusted to cover the balance of system cost and others. The Capital Cost per unit 750 USD
Replacement cost 750 USD
solar module parameters are shown in table 1:

Batteries: Batteries are an integral part of hybrid renewable Hydro Turbine: The hydro system is made up of the hydraulic
energy systems. The battery backup adds stability to the equipment which includes the intake gates and trash screens,
network by storing energy during peak generation and the electromechanical equipment which consists of the
releasing the energy for peak consumption when there is turbine, generator, transformer and controls. Table 4 shows
insufficient generation from renewable sources. The battery the parameters of the hydro turbine.
considered for the project is a lithium-ion 1MWh capacity E. Operating strategies
battery with supplier integration into HOMER-Pro. The There are two types of dispatch strategies in HOMER Pro:
specifications and price are provided in the software. The the load following (LF) dispatch and cycle charging (CC)
battery model parameters are shown in Table 2 dispatch. In the load following dispatch strategy, renewable
power sources charge the battery, but the generators produce
Converter: The bidirectional converter is used to interface just enough power to meet the load demand. In the cycle
between the DC bus connected to the PV system and the AC charging dispatch strategy, whenever the generators operate,
bus powered from the hydro system. A generic large free they produce more power than required to serve the load with
converter was selected from the HOMER database to allow the surplus electricity going to charge the battery bank. With
battery sizing without having to size the converter for a set-point state of charge chosen, the generators charge the
different ESS and charging configurations such as load batteries to a set point of about 80%, and the load following
following (LF) and cycle charging (CC). The inverter and dispatch strategy is used to top up the batteries. Table 5
rectifier efficiencies of the converter were taken as 95% each. shows the system control inputs for the simulation.
Table 3 shows the converter model parameters.
F. Cost
Table 1: The solar module parameters Figures 6 and 7 from [12] shows the total installation cost
Module parameter Value range for PV and hydropower renewable energy installations.
Type Generic flat-plate PV The figures are used as a guide in choosing the cost range for
Rated capacities considered 1500kW and 1800kW the PV and hydropower renewable energy installations.
Panel type Flat plate
Output current DC Table 4: The hydro turbine parameters
Lifetime considered 25 and 30 years Module parameter Value
PV derating factor 90% Type 2MW
Tracking system No Tracking Generic
Azimuth 0 deg Lifetime 25 years
Ground reflectance 20% Available head 10 m
Capital Cost per kW 1250USD Design flowrate 22,000 L/s
Replacement cost 1250USD Minimum flow ratio 50%
Operation and maintenance cost 300USD Maximum flow ratio 110%
efficiency 85%
Table 2: The battery model parameters Pipe head loss 10%
Module parameter Value Output current AC
Type Idealised battery model Capital Cost 3,000,000
Quantities considered 4, 6, 8 (including generator, controls, transformers and USD
String size 2 transmission system)
Expected lifetime 25 years Replacement cost 1,000,000
Nominal voltage 600 V USD
Nominal capacity in MWh 1.0 MWh Operation and maintenance cost 100,000 USD
Nominal capacity in Ah 1,670 Ah
Roundtrip efficiency 90%
Maximum charging current 1.67 kA Table 5: The system control inputs
Maximum discharge current 5 kA Simulation Value
Annual throughput 3,000,000 kWh Simulation time step (hours) 1
Initial state of charge 100% Include hydro turbine in all simulations Yes
Minimum state of charge 40% Generator control: Load following Yes
Capital Cost per unit 700,000 USD Generator control: Cycle charging Yes
Replacement cost 700,000 USD Set-point state of charge 80%
Operation and maintenance cost 10,000 USD

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Fig. 8: System components and configuration

Fig. 6: Global weighted average of total installed costs, capacity factors and system efficiency. The solar PV system is used to balance the
LCOE for solar PV, 2010–2018 supply. At peak load periods, the storage system comes in to
support generation. During periods of low demand, excess
generation from the hydropower is used to charge the storage
systems. The stored energy can then be used to provide
energy during periods of high demand.

III. RESULTS
The proposed system involves Hydro, solar PV, batteries and
a converter. The energy sources are hydro and solar power
sources. The supportive component used to improve stability
and reliability is the battery bank. An inverter is included for
power conditioning. The mini-hydropower interconnects with
the PV solar system. The DC bus voltage is 1.2kV which is
converted to 400V, 3-phase, 4-wire by the converter for
Figure 7: Global weighted average of total installed costs, capacity factors connection to the AC bus. The local community is powered
and LCOE for hydropower, 2010–2018 from the AC bus. Figure 9 shows the simulation result. The
results show that the solar PV rating of 1,800 kW, 16 units of
G. Simulation and optimisation with HOMER-Pro 1MLi batteries, 2MW hydro generating 1,834 kW peak and
Fig. 8 shows the system architecture. Microgrids are by their the converter operating at 1,711 kW are the optimal
nature very dynamic systems in which several variables can combinations. The dispatch strategy is cycle following (CC).
be changing simultaneously and continuously. The solar The net present cost (NPC) is $26.3M and the initial capital
resource has a very erratic behaviour following local required is $17.4M. The operation and maintenance cost per
meteorology, and loads can change rapidly and subject the year is $823,643. For the optimized system, the cost of
system to peaks and transients. Batteries and electronic energy is $0.628. Fig. 10 shows the optimal result based on
devices have their logic and response to changes in electric least cost of energy (COE).
parameters. The interaction of all these variables and
behaviours can result in a very complex system to analyse.
Microgrid modelling and simulation is done to optimise the
technical performance and economic viability. The
simulation serves two purposes: it determines firstly whether
the system is feasible, that is being able to serve the electric
load, and secondly, it estimates the lifecycle cost of the
system. The lifecycle cost is represented by the total net
present cost, which includes all costs and revenues that occur Fig. 9: Best option by HOMER-Pro
within the project lifetime with future cash flows discounted
to the present. HOMER-Pro's one-hour time step is
sufficiently small to capture the most important statistical
aspects of the load and the intermittent renewable sources and
equally appropriate to allow computation to the extent that
optimization and sensitivity analysis can be handled.
The hydropower is operated at rated capacity at all times to
provide frequency and voltage stability and improve on
Fig. 10: Optimal system based on least cost of energy (COE)

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Fig. 11: Cost summary for the selected option

Fig. 16: Hourly plot of solar PV and energy storage output for December

Fig. 12: Cash flow for the selected option

Fig. 17: Hourly plot of primary loads served and unmet electrical load

Fig. 13: Electrical Summary showing the energy generated by the

hydropower and PV systems, respectively.

Fig. 18: Hourly plot of primary loads served and unmet electrical load for
December 30

IV. DISCUSSIONS
The results highlight the fact that the use of HOMER Pro as a
Fig.14: Hourly plot of power sources output illustrating total electrical load design and simulation tool in the design of microgrids and
served, hydropower output, solar PV power output and ESS output optimisation of various renewable energy installations is
quite extensive. The study covers the design and
implementation of a hybrid solar/mini-hydro renewable
energy system. The main objective of the research is to
design and evaluate the performance of a rural electrification
project using hybrid autonomous renewable energy systems.
Sources considered were hydro and solar PV systems. The
results show that renewable energy can play a satisfying role
in providing electricity to rural communities. The results of
the design can be improved if actual costs are obtained from
the manufacturers and suppliers. The study also illustrates the
fact that hybrid renewable energy systems, though small-
Fig. 15: Hourly plot of solar PV system and energy storage output illustrating scaled, are endowed with high operational and constitutive
the performance of the solar PV system and ESS
sophistication. However, modern technology allows reliable
and cost-competitive energy generation in remote areas,
surpassing the convenience of traditional solutions using grid

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extension or diesel generation by economic and operating cost. This paper has highlighted the potentials of
environmental considerations. HOMER Pro and its application in the design of mini-power
The results demonstrate that the system offers the systems. HOMER Pro software can significantly simplify and
least cost of energy for the required quality and level of shorten the process of mini-power system design.
service. In some instances, the most practical system might
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