Size optimization of stand-alone PV/wind/diesel hybrid power generation systems

In this paper, a stand-alone PV/wind/diesel hybrid power generation (HPG) system, where the battery bank is assisted to store excess renewable power sources and the diesel generator acts as an emergency backup, is presented. To improve the utilization of the battery bank and avoid the loss of power supply, an improved power management strategy (I-PMS) is proposed. An economic and environmental multi objective size optimization (EEMSO) problem for HPG systems subject to constraints of battery capacity, energy supply and component size is effectively solved by a multi-objective line-up competition algorithm (MLUCA). A comparison shows that the optimal PV/wind/diesel HPG system is superior to the renewable PV/wind HPG system. Finally, it is also verified that the optimal HPG configuration is robust against large variations of component capacities, costs and CO2-equivalent emissions. (C) 2016 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.