Abstract:
The world has changed substantially over the past century, partly thanks to increased access to energy, an essential factor of social and economic development. Also, various sources of energy have been used. Some are known to be both non renewable and environment unfriendly, while others are commended and recommended for being renewable and for their ability to sustain the environment. The latter category includes energy sources such as hydropower, solar, and methane gaz. As the availability of electricity increases and energy sources diversified, however, the production and access costs in some parts of the world, including Rwanda, are too high for the great parts of the population to afford and/or use it. In such case, efforts to explore the means of reducing electricity costs are necessary in order to increase access and therefore ensure universal access to electricity. One of those means is to develop optimization models to minimize levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The present thesis reports on a study that involved the development and simulation of a mathematical model to minimize LCOE. The model was developed and tested using Matlab tool. The study also used a questionnaire to collect qualitative and quantitative data on Rwandan electricity users’ perceptions and experiences of using electricity in their households. Analysis of the questionnaire data indicated that Rwandans perceived electricity costs to be so high that even those who were connected to the grid used electricity at a very limited scale. Moreover, the simulation outcomes of the developed model demonstrated that the model can identify the best generation capacity variables and minimize LCOE. The optimization results indicated that the involved parameters could help achieve LCOE and to achieve the optimization generation capacity variables from renewable energy sources available in Rwanda. Implications and recommendations are drawn for the relevant energy sector stakeholders
