Mr. Asmelash Haftu Amaha will present his MTP2 as per the details below:

Date: 30th June, 2026

Time: 1100 - 1200 hrs.

Venue: C-TARA Conference Room No.1

Title: Comparative Assessment of Solar PV and Multi-Sourced Hybrid Minigrids for Rural Electrification

Guide: Prof. Anand B. Rao

Examiners: Prof. Satish B. Agnihotri and Prof. Zakir Rather

Abstract:

Access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity remains a major challenge for many rural and geographically isolated communities, where conventional grid expansion is often constrained by economic, technical, and infrastructural limitations. Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES) have emerged as a promising alternative, yet the growing diversity of system architectures has made comparative evaluation and design selection increasingly difficult. This study addresses this challenge through a combined literature synthesis and techno-economic assessment of hybrid renewable energy systems for rural electrification.

The study develops a unified classification framework comprising nine representative HRES architectures and synthesizes evidence from more than 100 published studies to examine the relationships between resource diversification, storage requirements, cost, reliability, and environmental performance. The review identifies a consistent trend: integrating multiple renewable resources can improve system resilience and reduce dependence on battery storage, although the magnitude of these benefits remains highly site-specific.

To validate these findings, five technically feasible HRES configurations were modelled and optimized using HOMER Pro for a rural mini-grid case study in Maharashtra. The results demonstrate that progressive hybridization can reduce battery storage requirements by up to 80% and lower the levelized cost of electricity by approximately 56% while achieving a 100% renewable fraction and eliminating direct CO₂ emissions. The proposed framework provides a practical basis for comparing HRES architectures and supports the design of cost-effective, low-carbon, and resilient rural energy systems.

Keywords: Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES); Rural Electrification; Energy Storage Reduction; Techno-Economic Analysis; HOMER Pro; Renewable Energy Integration; Mini-Grids; Sustainable Energy Planning.