Hybrid energy system (HES) is an integration of using two or more energy sources including renewable energy sources such as sun and wind to produce electricity. Both solar radiation and wind speed depend on climate condition and time of the day, thus, solar-wind-based system cannot provide electricity all the time individually [1]. Therefore, diesel fueled generators or/and storage system is/are needed to support the system.
The Palestinian power sector depends mainly on imported power. In fact, Gaza Strip purchases most of its energy needs from Israel because there is only one local power station in the Gaza Strip [2]. This motivates the Palestinian to invest in using renewable energy resources in particular solar, wind, geothermal and biomass energy sources [3]. Solar energy is the most promising source of energy considering the fact that Palestine receives about 3,000 hours of sunshine per year and has an average solar radiation of 5.4 kWh/m [3]. The importance and spread of using solar energy are introduced in [4-5].
The renewable wind power type offers a feasible and cheap solution to distribute power over wide areas world-wide. Unfortunately, Gaza Strip is characterized by a very low wind speed throughout the year [6], with an annual average wind speed of about 2.5–3.5 m/s [7]. In Gaza Strip, there are some small individual experiences to exploit this type of renewable energy. A group of Al-Azhar University students and another group of Islamic University students separately succeeded to generate electrical energy using wind energy [8].
As COVID-19 is spreading in the world, several COVID-19 infected cases in a daily bases are announced in Gaza strip. Thus, ministry of health (MOH) built several Quarantine centers to host COVID-19 infected people. In august 2020, MOH in Gaza strip installed Dier El Balah quarantine center in Dier El Balah town in central region of Gaza Strip. It consists of 165 caravans (rooms). Each room can be occupied by three persons, with total of 495 persons. This quarantine center is powered by electrical grid supply along with electric generator with capacity around 400 KVA. However, this system is very costly. In addition, it increases the pardon on utility company which has deficiency in supplying electricity for Gaza Strip. This motived the authors to propose the new HES to power Dier El Balah quarantine center.
In 2019, a simulation study is performed to investigate the techno-economic possibilities of the integration of photovoltaic solar with the existing diesel generators at Nasser Hospital in Gaza City in Gaza Strip [9]. The results of the simulated system showed that the new system will decrease production cost and reduce environmental pollution [9].
Another simulation study is performed to study hybrid off-grid system which includes a PV array, DC to AC inverter, charge controller, battery bank and backup diesel generator to cover electricity of the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) [10]. The study showed a clear reduction in unhealthy emissions caused by non-renewable energy sources [10]. In [11] a parametric study of solar and wind energy in Gaza Strip is proposed. The work results emphasized that renewable energy is an important energy source in Gaza that should not be ignored [11].
In this paper, we presented three different hybrid configurations of wind, photovoltaic (PV), and diesel systems for Dier El Balah quarantine center in middle part of Gaza Strip. The configurations are diesel only, wind-diesel, and wind-PV-diesel power generation systems. The three systems are designed and compared to select the optimal alternative system by considering the minimum cost of energy and least environmental impact. For sizing and optimizing the hybrid power systems, local hourly average wind speed, hourly total solar radiation, and hourly load data have been used as input.
Next section introduces the methodology followed by system design & results in section III. Finally, conclusion is presented in section IV.
Table 1: Typical appliance rating and load demand for Dier El Balah quarantine center
|
Electrical device
|
Quantity(Qty)
|
Power
(W)
|
Total power
(KW)
|
Daytime hours
07:00 – 17:59
|
Evening
Hours
18:00 – 21:59
|
Night Hours 22:00- 06:59
|
Total
hours /day
|
Total Energy
KWh/day
|
Air Conditioner
12000BTU
|
165
|
1060
|
174.9
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
9
|
1574.1
|
Heater 40 Liter
|
165
|
2500
|
412.5
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
1237.5
|
Heater 2 Liter
|
165
|
2200
|
363
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
1.5
|
544.5
|
Refrigerator 6 cu.ft
|
165
|
150
|
24.75
|
4
|
2
|
3
|
9
|
222.75
|
Washing Machine
|
16
|
1500
|
24
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
12
|
288
|
Inner light
|
165
|
40
|
6.6
|
1
|
5
|
3
|
9
|
59.4
|
Outer light
|
20
|
100
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
8
|
13
|
26
|
Total
|
3952
|