Hydro aeropower, an option for electricity cost reduction in farming applications

Abstract

This paper develops a model which can be used to minimize the electricity cost of South African farms through the usage of a wind pump with pico hydro generator and a borehole in pumped hydro storage configuration referred to as “hydro aeropower”. This model will optimally schedule the generation power flow from the pico turbine given the demand, the state of water level in the reservoir as well as the electricity pricing period. This model can be implemented to control the power flow in small farming activities where boreholes and windmill are available. Therefore, the wind and groundwater resources can be effectively used to locally produce electricity which can contribute to the decrease of the systems’ total operation costs.