One of the traditional solutions in remote and rural areas is to
use a diesel engine which has a low upfront costs and it is relatively
easy to install and control. However, the fuel price, transportation
cost, bulk storage needs and environmental impacts of using the
diesel engine make this solution less attractive. The new trend in
rural electrification is extracting energy from locally available
renewable energy sources in a hybrid configuration. Several works
and research studies have been conducted in this field and most of
them validate these types of hybrid energy solutions' advantages
[7,12e18]. In many of them, solar and wind energy are considered
as the primary energy sources but due to their intermittent nature,
there is a need to have a backup system in case of shortage or lack of
wind and solar energy [14]. In many cases diesel engine and battery
bank are chosen as a backup generator and energy storage,
respectively [1,19,20].