Micro power optimization for water desalination for occupants in remote Islands

Abstract

The seawater desalination is a good method to produce portable water, particularly in rural and coastal areas where access to surface and ground water is limited. However sea water desalination consumes more energy, and practical difficulties faces while introducing this system for places like isolated islands where utility grid is absence. Hence, integrating renewable energy offers a feasible approach to desalinating water. This study discusses on various desalination methods and identified Reverse Osmosis technology as a most suitable desalination method for an island based on the factors such as cost, energy, geography and environment, technology and social impact. The methodology describes the selection procedure of a RO plant according to the water requirement and hybrid power system architecture for the selected RO plant. In this study two scenarios were analyzed, without water storage tank and with water storage tank. The Baththalanginduwa island in Sri Lanka was selected to simulate the methodology which requires 75 m3 of water per day. The RO plant‘s Specific Energy Consumption calculated as 9.27 Kwh ⁄m3 .The optimum configuration in the first scenario gives NPC ( 281 ) and ⁄ as water production cost. In this configuration HOMER suggested 02 Wind Turbines, 64 batteries, 50 kW Diesel generator and 86 solar panels which gives highest renewable factor (76 %) among other configurations. The optimum configuration in the second scenario gives NP ( 154 Mn 139 ) and Rs 1.39⁄l as water production cost. In this configuration it was calculated the optimum configuration should requires 02 Nos of RO plants (83 m3, a single wind turbine , 100 NOs solar panels , 50 Kw Diesel generator and water storage tank (55 m3).