Design and Construction of a Low Cost Digital Weather Station

This work is focused on the design and construction of a low cost weather station which makes weather related data available for different purposes such as agriculture, aviation weather forecasting, etc. The design is made up of an outdoor module which measures four weather elements (temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity and wind speed) through their respective sensors. This module transmits the sampled data wirelessly through radio frequency (RF) to an indoor module which receives the data and automatically logs the data to a database. A MATLAB® based graphical user interface (GUI) was also incorporated to view the logged data and perform some setup operations on the system

Modeling a Digitalized Indexing Structure for a Departmental Library Using HTML

Every existing library possesses a catalogue, which is a guiding document for every user of the library who does not intend to waste time in identifying the actual location of a resource in a section of the library. A catalogue serves as a collection of the library’s blueprints, i.e. the various sections and the system of arrangement in the library. These catalogues in most libraries have become an old pile of cards, which is of little or no help to a library user in terms of resource location. Nowadays, card catalogues are being replaced with digital catalogues. A library viewed as a network of different sections can have its catalogue modeled using a web language (HyperText Mark-up language, or HTML). The use of such a model affords the community, which the library serves, with the advantage of better awareness. This work highlights the essentials of digital cataloguing and enumerates the steps involved in the conversion of an existing card catalogue to its digital equivalence

Maximizing the penetration levels of hybrid renewable energy systems in rural areas with demand side management approaches in achieving SDGs

Access to quality healthcare services is an integral part of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and reliable electricity access is a pre-requisite for improving human lives, enhancing healthcare delivery, education as well as other developmental growth within local communities. However, many rural locations far away from the grid centres have difficulties in accessing electricity, due to distance and cost of extension of grid to such areas, and this has resulted in the inability to provide basic amenities. Rural healthcare centres located in such places are unable to deliver their intended mandate, thus hindering the realization of SDG 3. Therefore, the innovative idea of this study is increasing the penetration of renewable energy technology while minimizing the cost by integrating the users’ perspective with demand side management (DSM) approaches, techno-economic analysis, and environmental impact assessment of hybrid energy system configuration, taking a health institution as the case study. To meet the considered rural healthcare facility’s initial average load demand of 20.58kWh/day, an optimum PV-Gen-battery hybrid system was selected using HOMER with cost of energy (COE) of $0.224/kWh, net present cost (NPC) of$61,917.6 and initial capital cost of $16,046.5. After the DSM measures were applied to reduce the peak and average demand, an optimum hybrid system was obtained, producing a COE of$0.166/kWh, NPC of $18,614.7 and initial capital cost of$10,070.8. The cost saving realized for the considered rural healthcare facility is $0.057/kWh, representing a 25.8% reduction from the current COE and a 70% reduction in Total NPC. On the other hand, the optimal configurations gave around a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions compare to a diesel-alone configuration. The work provides novel insights which may be applicable worldwide. It has the potential to significantly advance the development of high-quality and timely evidence to underpin current and future developments in the rural energy sector and contribute to the implementation of SDG3 and 7

Economic evaluation of hybrid energy systems for rural electrification in six geo-political zones of Nigeria

Rural electrification improves the quality of life of rural dwellers having limited or non-access to electricity through decentralized electricity coverage. Since the price of oil is unstable and fluctuating day by day and grid expansion is not also a cost effective solution, integrating renewable energy sources thus become an important alternative for rural electrification. The present study investigated the feasibility of different power generation configurations comprising solar array, wind turbine and diesel generator in different locations within the geo-political zones of Nigeria. Six rural communities were randomly chosen from each of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria with the intention that the results of the study could be replicated in other remote locations of the selected zones with similar terrains. HOMER (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable) simulation software was used to determine the economic feasibility of the systems. The simulations concentrated on the net present costs, cost of energy and renewable fraction of the given hybrid configurations for all the climatic zones. The analysis indicates that the PV/diesel/battery hybrid renewable system configuration is found as optimum architecture for both sensitivity cases of 1.1 and $1.3/l of diesel. It also displayed better performance in fuel consumption and CO2 reductio

Demand side management strategies for solar-PV penetration in powering rural healthcare centre in Africa

This paper explored the possibility of applying Demand Side Management (DSM) strategies in meeting the energy demands of rural healthcare centres in Africa. Using an energy management system, it is possible to increase renewable energy penetration, optimize energy costs and reduces carbon emissions. DSM is a process of managing energy consumption to optimize available and planned resources for power generation. The DSM strategies employed in this study incorporates all activities that influence the rural healthcare facilities use of electricity, hence leading to manageable demand. The main focus of this study is on feasibility of increasing penetration of off-grid hybrid renewable energy in delivering basic healthcare services in rural areas with limited or no electricity access. Renewable energy resources (RES) such as solar is considered abundant in many rural places, it is also environmental friendly, hence suitable for providing electricity in rural healthcare facilities where there is no electricity access or limited supply. To meet the facility’s energy need, an optimum PV-Gen-battery hybrid system was designed using HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Electric Renewables), with COE of $0.224/kWh, Net Present Cost (NPC) of$61,917.6 and initial capital cost of $16,046.5. DSM measures were applied to reduce the peak and average demand. With this new load profile, an optimum hybrid system was obtained, producing a COE of$0.166/kWh, NPC of $18,614.7 and initial capital cost of$10,070.8 after the DSM. The cost saving realized for the considered rural healthcare center is $0.057/kWh, representing 25.8% reduction from the current COE and 70% reduction in Total NPC. The research provides novel insights which may be applicable worldwide. It has the potential to significantly advance the development of high-quality and timely evidence to underpin current and future developments in the rural energy sector and contribute to the implementation of SDG7.

Hybrid renewable energy supply for rural healthcare facilities: An approach to quality healthcare delivery

The lack of modern electricity supply has been a major impediment to proper functioning of the healthcare centers in the rural areas, contributing to high maternal and child mortality rates in a country. Therefore, this study focuses on how to address the identified problem so that the healthcare centers or clinics in the remote areas can provide timely delivery of medical services for the concerned people. This paper, then, presents the analysis of stand-alone hybrid renewable energy systems for basic healthcare services in the rural areas, where there is no grid energy supply or the supply from the existing grid is erratic and unreliable. One major factor that informs the selection of the hybrid energy system in this study is that it promises high reliability compared to a single energy system. The research presents a statistical analysis of the potential of wind and solar energies for a selected rural locations in Nigeria based on the available long-term hourly and daily meteorological data. It employs an optimal technical and economic design and sizing of hybrid electrical power systems’ components such as the wind, PV, battery and inverter systems, using the hybrid optimisation software (HOMER). Results show that Sokoto and Jos sites exist in the high wind potential regions, while the remaining sites are only suitable for small wind applications. Values obtained for global radiation show that all the sites enjoy considerable solar energy potential suitable for varying degree of solar energy applications. PV/wind/diesel/battery hybrid system configuration is considered optimum for rural health center at Iseyin, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Jos and Enugu, while hybrid systems involving PV/diesel/battery is considered ideal for Port-Harcourt, due to the quality of renewable energy potential. Hence, it was concluded that, the abundance of wind and solar resources in the country create an ideal environment for inclusion of renewable energy systems in the design and implementation of standalone power supply systems to improve rural healthcare delivery

Effect of Contingency on Available Transfer Capability of Nigerian 330-kV Network

The transfer capability evaluation requires the consideration of various pre- and post-system contingencies to ascertain network security and the reliability of power systems. In this paper, the effects of single line (N-1) outage contingency and simultaneous transfer were considered in Nigerian 330-kV network. The results show that a single line outage not only lowers the available transfer capability (ATC) but can result in an infeasible operating condition (system collapse) of the Nigerian 330-kV power grid. Moreover, an additional source area results in higher transfer capability

An Energy Management Scheme for Hybrid Energy System Using Fuzzy Logic Controller

This paper presents a Fuzzy Logic Controller-based energy management system (EMS) to control hybrid energy sources. The design is a single-phase and grid-tied system sized to handle the system's diverse load demands. The design system consists of photovoltaic modules, a grid source and a single-phase standby generator. The system uses energy produced by the PV modules (using Perturbation and Observation MPPT to maximize energy generated from the modules) and power stored in the Energy Storage Unit (ESU) to fulfil the various load needs while prioritizing the selling of excess energy to the grid. The fuzzy controller controls and manages the highlighted operational activities and prevents the ESU from overcharging and undercharging. Simulink is adopted to implement the proposed system within the simulation period; as the irradiation increased from  to , the grid's power supply dropped from  because of the amount of PV power generation between . The photovoltaic module contributed to the system's overall power consumption while keeping the DC bus voltage between . The EMS using the fuzzy logic controller provides high levels of energy security, system effectiveness and O &M cost optimization. It has also offered a consistent and uninterrupted power supply

Possibility of solar thermal power generation technologies in Nigeria:Challenges and policy directions

This paper presents a brief overview of solar thermal generation technologies (parabolic trough, central tower receiver, linear Fresnel reflecting and parabolic dish concentrators) and their possible applications in Nigeria. It further discusses an array of barriers to the development of the technologies, such as lack of understanding of solar thermal systems, lack of incentives for renewable technologies and previous experience of solar photovoltaic systems failure that is making people doubt the viability of renewable electricity. Other barriers that were considered are lack of technical expertise, high technology cost and lack of project funding, including a lack of enabling policies to drive the technologies. This study then develops a policy framework that will help to understand and address some of the identified challenges to achieve widespread adoption, application, and diffusion in Nigeria. In addition, the framework will provide useful insights into the major issues that affect community-based or regional solar thermal power systems in developing countries. Widespread application of these clean technologies can help mitigate climate changeInternational Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, and with financial support from the government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada, under the framework of the Mathematical Sciences for Climate Change Resilience programme

Optimal planning and electricity sharing strategy of hybrid energy system for remote communities in Nigeria

In recent times, renewable energy-based power systems are being used to address energy poverty or shortage that is experienced in developing countries. To improve these systems’ applicability, they are used to design a hybrid energy system. It is against this backdrop that this paper focuses on how hybrid energy systems can be designed optimally to address electricity sharing between domestic and productive use in remote communities. This paper, therefore, proposes a mixed-integer multi-objective optimization model for electricity sharing between domestic and productive use in remote communities. The model considered the number of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems acquisition, the total cost of energy utilized, and the cost of CO2 emissions avoided. A genetic algorithm was used to optimize these decision variables. The proposed model evaluation was carried out using data from three remote communities in South-West Nigeria. The results obtained from the model show that the number of installed solar PV systems in the first, second, and third communities is 74, 76 and 73 solar PV systems, respectively. For 25 years planning period, the first community required 29,554.05 kWh, the second community required 28,280.20 kWh, and the third community required 28,608.70 kWh. The average values for productive use of electricity from the conventional energy sources for the first community was 0.358, for the second community was 0.338, and for the third community was 0.348. In terms of the maximum productive use of electricity from the solar PV system, the first and second communities had the same value (0.39), while the third community's maximum had a value of 0.40. The developed model will be useful for evaluating the expected number of functional solar PV systems required, managing the quantity of electricity supply from the national grid and the generators, and planning electricity sharing for domestic and productive use within the selected communities