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Energy Systems and Technologies for the Coming Century ...

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Figure 4. Variation in LCOE with size of <strong>the</strong> MH plant <strong>and</strong> POI at 0.4 kVSo, from <strong>the</strong> perspective of <strong>the</strong> power plant, <strong>the</strong>re is always an advantage to connect to<strong>the</strong> nearby grid. The sensitivity analysis has been done with various scenarios of <strong>the</strong>LCOE from micro hydro considering its system size, at different load factors <strong>and</strong> if it isconnected with <strong>the</strong> grid line (Figure 4). The sensitivity analysis shows that LCOEsignificantly decreases with increase in <strong>the</strong> load factor however change in <strong>the</strong> LCOE isless significant with <strong>the</strong> plant size except <strong>for</strong> small plants less than 75 kW.3.5 Diesel Generator (DG) <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> rural electrificationDiesel power plants have been <strong>the</strong> mostly used in <strong>the</strong> commercial <strong>and</strong> industrial sector asback-up power. Diesel generator (DG) is also one of <strong>the</strong> options used in <strong>the</strong> ruralelectrification in <strong>the</strong> places where <strong>the</strong>re is fairly high population density. The initialinstallation of such generators is cheap compared to o<strong>the</strong>r renewable energy technology.For off-grid electrification, small size diesel gen-sets are quite oftenly used where lowload factors prevail (Banerjee, 2006). Diesel generators are extensively used inAfghanistan <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> electrification. As per <strong>the</strong> National Solidarity Programme ofAfghanistan, about 1310 diesel schemes has been installed in various provinces with <strong>the</strong>total install capacity of 47.25 MW each ranging from 4 KW to 280 kW (NSP, 2011).However, diesel generator sets are not common in rural electrification in Nepal. Thispaper has also looked upon <strong>the</strong> levelized cost of electricity production by using DG. Adiesel generator with revolving field, brushless AC, 3 phase, 400V, power factor 1.0 <strong>and</strong>directly coupled has been taken as <strong>the</strong> reference <strong>for</strong> cost analysis. The technical <strong>and</strong> costin<strong>for</strong>mation of DG sets in case of Afghanistan <strong>and</strong> in Nepal has been given in table 3.With this in<strong>for</strong>mation, <strong>the</strong> estimated levelized costs are USD 0.634/kWh (Afghanistan)<strong>and</strong> USD 0.512/kWh (Nepal).Risø International <strong>Energy</strong> Conference 2011 Proceedings Page 374

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