Karamanski, StefanGrobler, Jan-HendrikErfort, G2025-03-092025-03-092024-11http://hdl.handle.net/10204/14124With the ever-increasing energy challenges in South Africa, towns are interested in reducing their dependence on the system operator along with optimising their energy usage. A town in the Western Cape region of South Africa, Hermanus, aims to become the sustainable energy hub of South Africa by having a high renewable energy (RE) penetration. It is also in their interest to reduce energy costs as much as possible. In this case study, RE sources coupled with battery energy storage systems (BESS) are modelled to achieve this goal. Other considerations such as electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities are also important to consider in the town’s planning. A Homer Grid model is developed in this research. It includes the process of load profiling, utility tariff structuring, grid connection capacity, grid sales, load shedding, PV and wind generation, energy storage, EV charging and economic modelling. An LCOE of R1.37/kWh was achieved by including 6 MW of PV and 4.5 MW of wind in the model, together with a 39 MWh lithium-ion BESS. The model achieved its objective by reducing the annual consumption and demand charges by R175 million. The economic modelling yielded an internal rate of return (IRR), return on investment (ROI) and payback period of 25.3%, 39.5% and 5.1 years respectively. The model performs as expected, by minimising costs, maximising RE self-consumption, intelligently managing the BESS to mitigate unserved loads, and effectively allowing the town to operate more energy independently. This research is valuable for stakeholders such as town planners, renewable energy developers, BESS developers, grid operators, transmission line planners and EV institutions.FulltextenHybrid renewable energy systemsBattery energy storage systemsEnergy cost minimisationElectric vehiclesTown planningConference Presentationn/a