Many rural communities in Africa located far away from transmission corridors do not enjoy electricity supply and cannot hope to be connected to their national grids in the foreseeable future. However, many among such communities have small hydro potential and moderate wind resources. In this paper, an off-grid, hybrid, wind-hydro power generation model is proposed for such communities. Candidate sites for this model would possess small hydro capacity of up to 500 kW and annual mean wind speed of 7 – 10 m/s at 10 m hub height. The operation of an existing small, run-of-river hydro station in conjunction with a hypothetical, in-situ wind farm feeding loads typical of rural areas was simulated to demonstrate the feasibility of the scheme. Simulation results for the system operation were found to be satisfactory. Further, it was demonstrated that, in spite of being an off-grid scheme, the wind turbine generators, aided by the STATCOM are capable of Low Voltage Ride Through in the event of a severe three-phase fault on a major feeder in accordance with grid code requirements. It is anticipated that, with the provision of subsidy by government and/or development agencies, implementation of this
model will translate into rapid economic and social transformation of numerous rural areas across Africa.