Rural electrification is necessary for both the country’s development and the well-being of the villagers. The current study investigates the feasibility of providing electricity to off-grid villages in the Indian state of Odisha by utilizing renewable energy resources that are currently available in the study area. However, due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, it is highly improbable to ensure a continuous electricity supply to the off-grid areas. To ensure a reliable electricity supply to the off-grid areas, three battery technologies have been incorporated to find the most suitable battery system for the study area. In addition, we evaluated various demand side management (DSM) techniques and assessed which would be the most suitable for our study area. To assess the efficiency of the off-grid system, we applied different metaheuristic algorithms, and the results showed great promise. Based on our findings, it is clear that energy-conservation-based DSM is the ideal option for the study area. From all the algorithms tested, the salp swarm algorithm demonstrated the best performance for the current study.
