Feasibility Analysis and Economic Impact Assessment of Microgrid Renewable Energy Systems in Burao, Somaliland

The political and socioeconomic challenges in Somaliland have caused a lack of scaled and interconnected power infrastructure which resulted in a power shortage with power loss in transmission. The fluctuating cost of diesel fights to move away from the recovery of the post-conflict situation to a relatively rapid economic development. The reliance of the majority of the population on biomass to meet their urban and rural energy demands has depleted the forest and used crop residues, however, the use of biomass has recently decreased in urban cities. This paper presents a feasibility study of Solar Photovoltaic, wind turbine, and generators based on hybrid electric supply system to Burao Somaliland urban center (9.5259° N, 45.5346° E). This study has been carried out to show the supply of electricity to a small residential load and the target to reduce the cost of energy. Besides, a comparative study was carried out with renewable resource-based microgrid hybrid energy system compared to a current diesel-only micro-grid, hence in this case study, the best cost-effective solution is considered by using different renewable energy sources. Solar and wind potentials have been estimated from NASA surface meteorology. HOMER has been used for optimization and sensitivity analysis for the hybridsystem.