Preliminary Study of Renewable Pico Hydro Electrification Schemes to Improve Current Electrification Method in Royal Belum

PV/Diesel Power Generation Scheme was adopted to replace the stand-alone diesel power generation system in rural villages and schools in Malaysia. As the diesel fuel costs fluctuates highly over the year and the PV module showing inefficiency and incapability to totally replace diesel generators, hydro power is identified as an essential surplus to the current PV/Diesel system to reduce the fuel consumption in the system. Hence, this paper studies the preliminary elements and analyse the potential for PV/Diesel/Pico Hydro hybrid system to be applied in SK Sungai Tiang, Royal Belum, Perak. The comparison between PV/Diesel hybrid and PV/Diesel/Pico Hydro hybrid with emphasis placed on the amount of fuel savings and total cost needed to implement the PV/Diesel/Pico Hydro hybrid based on capital cost and operational & maintenance cost (O&M).