2018 International Conference on Computer, Control, Electrical, and Electronics Engineering (ICCCEEE)
Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources in Al-Fashir City
Khalid Osama Hassan Eltayeb
Electrical & Electronics Engineering
University of Khartoum
Khartoum, Sudan
khalidhassan07@hotmail.com
Abstract—Sudan's vast and diverse lands give rise to a wide
spectrum of climates and landscapes. Energy is a key factor for
development of Sudan's cities and the national economy. This
paper discusses the renewable energy resources available in
western Sudan namely at Al-Fashir city, in addition to how to
utilize it. Western Sudan has a long history of difficulties in
meeting its energy demand making it hard to execute strategic
plans thus why it is an important study case. The historical
background of the city is provided with the major energy issues
the city is facing. The paper analyzes the most efficient renewable
energy sources in the area to get the best combination that will
provide the maximum utilization. Another issue is the refugee
camps in the area that have no reliable energy resources. The
mechanism of generating energy using wind and solar power are
discussed, analyzing the potential leads to the use of wind energy
where wind turbines are placed on Marrah Mountain. This paper
justifies why it is the most efficient resource to supply the city
because it's clean, reliable and other advantages are discussed.
For refugee camps, it is found that photovoltaic cells are the best
choice for electricity generation since its clean and a mobile
source. Energy conversion systems are sized to meet the demand.
Conclusions will be drawn to summarize the findings of the
paper.
Keywords— Renewable energy, solar power, wind power, wind
speed, (WECS), pumping system.
I. INTRODUCTION
Studies such as the Ferguson et al. (2000) have shown that
there is a solid correlation between energy consumption and
economic growth; therefore it goes without saying that for an
economic boom to happen, in any community, it must have a
reliable supply of energy. Additionally, using conventional
methods such as fossil fuels to produce energy has a negative
impact on the environment since fossil fuels combustion
releases pollutants such as carbon dioxides, nitrogen oxides and
sulphur oxides, moreover they have a higher operational cost.
International agreements such as the COP21 which was drawn
up in Paris late November of 2015 are going to limit each
country’s emissions. Another reason that makes renewable
resources an attractive alternative is that it is available for the
upcoming generations; furthermore higher energy security is
achieved.
II. BACKGROUND
Al-Fashir is the capital of North Darfur state which is
located 802 km west of the capital city Khartoum, 700 meters
above sea level. The second biggest city next to it is Nyala
978-1-5386-4123-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Mogtaba Mohammed Hamza
Electrical & Electronics Engineering
University of Khartoum
Khartoum, Sudan
kawartime@gmail.com
which is located 195 km away from Al-Fashir. It has a
population of 264,734 (2006). The main economic activities in
Al-Fashir are agriculture and herding livestock. An unfortunate
fact about this city is that it has been torn apart by civil wars
that led to a lot of its citizens seeking refuge in refugee camps
which means they are constantly moving depending on security
conditions.
A. Problems
Currently, a big part of Al-Fashir is connected to the national
grid, however there are areas which are not. Furthermore the
grid connection is pretty unstable particularly in the summer
when the demand is at its highest consequently causing a huge
power reliability problem. As mentioned in the background a
lot of people live in refugee camps around Al-Fashir city who
are constantly moving depending on the area's conditions.
Groundwater is readily available in al-Fashir however there is a
huge water shortage therefore a reliable solution for providing
water will be implemented.
B. Objectives
- Provide an electrical power supply for Al-Fashir.
- Provide refugee camps around Al-Fashir with a
mobile and sustainable energy supply for water
pumping.
III. METHODOLOGY
A. Using wind turbines to supply Al-Fashir city
The northern side of Marrah Mountains which is the highest
region in Sudan stretches out to the outskirts of Al-Fashir. The
wind speeds are much higher at high altitudes especially in
areas where there are no trees to slow down the wind such as
the Marrah Mountain therefore the wind farm is placed on the
Marrah Mountain which also gives the advantage of supplying
al-Fashir and the rest of the Darfur state area. The relationship
between speed, power and wind: The power available (P) in a
cross sectional area A perpendicular to the wind stream with
speed V is expressed as:
P = 0.5 * ρ * Α * V3 * Cp (1)
Where ρ is the air density and Cp is the power coefficient
which is efficiency factor derived by the German physicist
Albert Betz who proved that the maximum theoretical value for
the amount of power that can be extracted from the wind by a
turbine is 59.3%-Betz limit. The power coefficient is unique to
each turbine and it changes according to the design of the mills.
In real life commercial wind turbines have Betz's limit between
30%-40% due to structural constraints such as durability and
strength. The value of the power coefficient Cp depends on the
turbine efficiency (Ƞ turbine), mechanical efficiency
(Ƞmechanical) and electrical efficiency (Ƞelectrical).
Cp = Ƞ turbine*Ƞmechanical * Ƞelectrical (2)
The rotor and generator should be designed to generate the
maximum available power per year.
Another variable that affects wind speed is height. The wind
profile power law is used to determine the wind speed at a
certain height when the speed is known for the same location at
a different height.
(New height\old height)^α= (speed at any height\speed at
known height). [2]
Or
(3)
Where α is power law exponent which is dependent on the
stability of the atmosphere (surface roughness). For neutral
stability conditions it is equal to 1/7 for calm sea and 0.4 for
towns. [4]
The speed increases with altitude however the increase is not
linear. Therefore you have to calculate the breakeven point
where the output power and cost at that height are equal.
Placing the wind mills:
The output power of the wind turbines is proportional to the
cube of the wind speed so location of the wind turbines must be
chosen carefully. The wind mills are located in the mountain
which is an isolated area where the air turns around the hill
which could make placing of wind mills perpendicular to the
hillsides better. Placing the wind mills at a certain point should
be considered depending on the available area at a certain
height.
B. Using photovoltaic modules for water pumping for refugee
camps
Fig. 1. PV solar pumping system
Solar pumping systems composed of PV solar array, an
inverter and water pump are going to be used. It is better to
store water than electricity according to the philosophy of this
design. To determine the power consumption demand, the
amount of water consumption per day for the camp must be
calculated; the average daily consumption of water is 20 liter
per person and according to this the total camp's water
consumption per day could be calculated.
Then the suitable water pump was chosen according to the
required flow rate and groundwater depth. The required power
(watt-hour) for that specific pump was calculated. The power
supplied by the PV must be 30% greater than the power needed
by the pump to cover the losses in the system and deliver the
total power needed by the pump. It should take approximately
four hours to pump enough water for the whole camp. This
water will be stored in storage tanks and used throughout the
day. Using storage tanks is an added bonus because now
batteries will not be necessary. For the inverter it is necessary
to make sure that the total watt of the pump is always less than
the inverter rated input power. The inverter size should be 30%
greater than the pump total watts for safe operation condition,
due to surge current at starting the inverter size must be at least
three times the pump capacity plus the inverter capacity.
Refugee camps are usually located in isolated areas which
makes placing of PV cells easier. A tracking system is added to
make the cells capable of tracking the sun light in order to
ensure the maximum utilization of the solar energy to provide
the maximum available output power.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
A. Wind turbine calculations
In order to increase the generated power by increasing the
wind speed the turbines are going to be built 350m above
ground level on the Jebel Marrah mountain range due to the
higher wind speeds in the mountain and it is close to Al-Fashir
city.
According to republic of Sudan ministry of water resources
and electricity report 'proposed projects for promotion' the wind
speed at the western Sudan7.9m/s –at 60m above ground level
(a.g.l).
 Considering the wind mill tower height = 50m
Wind mill diameter = 62m
Elevation of the turbine= elevation from ground level +
height of the tower
350m+50m=400m
Speed at 400m elevation= 7.9*(400/60)0.143 =10.36m/s
The wind speed increased due to the new height.
Area of the wind mill = pi*r2 = pi*(31.5)2=3017.5m2
The power coefficient on three efficiencies mentioned
above. Commercial wind generators usually have standards for
those efficiencies. The turbine efficiency is about 0.397,
mechanical efficiency is around (0.93-0.94) and electrical
efficiency between (0.95-0.97).
Assuming turbine efficiency is 0.4, mechanical efficiency is
0.93 and electrical efficiency is 0.97.From equation (2)
Cp= 0.4 * 0.93* 0.97 = 0.361 which could be up to 0.4
Air density= 1.15kg/m3[6]
Power generated= 0.5* 0.361* (10.36)3* 1.15*3017.5=
696.478kW
Notice the huge increase in the generated power due to the
increase of wind speed.
The load to be supplied is 30MW.
Number of wind turbines needed=30MW
/696.478kW=43.07≈ 45 wind turbines.
So wind farm of 45 turbines should be installed at 400 a.g.l
to generate the desired amount of power including the
transmission lines losses.
The average cost of each tower in this wind farm is
approximately $275000. Therefore the total cost of the wind
farm is going to be $12,375,000. In addition to that the cost of
the transmission line and substations should be added which is
approximately $2,500,000 making the total cost for the project
$14,875,000.
B. Photovoltaic modules calculations
Assuming there are 10,000 people in the camp, the average
water consumption is about 20 liter for a person per day. The
solar system is highly reliable but to increase the overall system
reliability in case of solar system fail the average water
consumption is 22ltr. So the required amount of water per day
is
22ltr * 10000= 220000 liters per day
A 380 volt Shakti SSP2000-80-16 20 HP motor is going to
be used; it pumps water from a depth of 60m. It requires 17kW
to pump 918ltr /min or 550801ltr/h at a depth of 60m.
So the motor will work for 4 hours to cover the desired
amount of water, so it is not necessary to use a battery.
Generally 30% of the required power is added to cover the
system losses, so
Earray= 17KW*4.*1.3= 88.4kWh
For the inverter to handle the total load watts, the inverter
size should be (25%-30%) greater than the load total watts to
handle but due to the high surge current during starting since
the load is a motor the inverter size should be three times the
capacity of the load plus the inverter capacity. The margin of
safety is taken 30% so inverter size is
17KW*1.3 + 17KW*3 =73.1KW
For the inverter to handle the total watts the inverter size
should be 73KW or higher.
Since water is stored instead of electricity batteries and
charge controller are not used which will reduce the cost and
increase system reliability.
The Sun PowerTM300 watt (peak power) Solar Panel is
going to be used , the Electrical Characteristics of the panel:
Performance at STC: Irradiance, 1000 W/m2 ; cell
temperature, 25° C
Rated Power (P max) 300 W
Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) 64.3 V
Short-circuit Current (Isc) 5.96 A
Maximum power point Voltage (V max) 54.7 V
Maximum power point Current (Imax) 5.58 A
Efficiency 18.7%
Operational Characteristics:
Nominal Operating Cell Temperature (NOCT) 45 +/- 2 ºC
Operating Temperature - 40 to +85 ºC
Temperature Coefficient of Pmax - 0.38 %/ ºk
Temperature Coefficient of Voc – 176.6mV%/ ºk
Temperature Coefficient of Isc 3.n %/ ºk
The worst case insolation 5.7 for Al-Fashir is used instead
of panel generation factor. So the total Watt-peak rating of the
PV panel is
WP = 88.4kWh /5.7h =15.51 kW.
No. of modules = 15.51kW\0.3KW= 51.6959= 52 modules
In order to get required output potential differences (380V)
the PV modules must connected in certain configuration in
terms of series and parallel so
No. of modules in series = 380v\54.7v = 6.95 ≈7 modules
No. of modules in parallel= 52\7= 7.428 ≈ 8 groups.
Therefore the modules will be connected into two groups, each
one composed of seven modules connected in series to supply
the 380V motor. The cost of each solar module is
approximately $1,500 therefore the whole system which
consists of 52 modules will cost $78,000 plus the cost of the
motor which is $20,000. As a result of this the total cost will be
$98,000.
V. CONCLUSION
With regards to Al-Fashir the energy security has greatly
increased since wind turbines do not rely on fuel which has to
be imported from other regions, additionally the power supply
will be more stable because the turbines could be used while
keeping the grid connection as a backup- increasing the
system's reliability. The national grid connection will be used
in case there is an extra load or if there is a fault. The capacity
of the wind farm can be extended in the future to cater for a
higher demand since the mountain range has much more
untapped potential.
Another problem was pumping water from the ground
for refugee camps which are usually situated in remote areas
far away from the national grid plus these camps relocate
depending on weather, security conditions and other factors.
Therefore photovoltaic panels were used to power pumps to
supply camps with up to 10,000 refugees. Of course using a
similar design methodology it can be extended to bigger
numbers. An added benefit of this system is that it will create
new career opportunities for the refugees in the area because
they can be trained to operate and maintain these systems since
there are no trained individuals in this field in the area.
Furthermore Jebel Marah can be used as a source of
geothermal energy and the UNESCO has sent a fact finding
mission to explore the geothermal potential in these areas. It
was concluded that there are very favourable conditions such as
the possible presence of magma chambers however these
results are not conclusive and further exploration missions need
to be done [3]. An additional source that can be exploited in Al-
Fashir is biomass fuel from the huge amount of waste products
from agriculture and livestock.
REFERENCES
[1] John Twidell and Tony Weir. 2006."Renewable Energy Resources"-2nd
Edition-by Taylor &Francis.
[2] Abdeen, M. O, environmental and sustainable development. Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 12 (9) (2008), 2265-2300.
[3] Omer, A.M., Chapter 9: Development of sustainable energy research
and applications. In W. H. Lee and V. G. Cho (Eds.), Handbook of
sustainable energy, (pp. 385-418). New York, NY: NOVA Science
Publishers, Inc 2010
[4] Eldridge, F.R. 1980. Wind machines. 2nd Edition. Van Nostrand
Reinhold. New York: USA.