Energy Management and Optimization of a PV/Diesel/Battery Hybrid Energy System Using a Combined Dispatch Strategy

In recent years, the concept of hybrid energy systems (HESs) is drawing more attention for electrification of isolated or energy-deficient areas. When optimally designed, HESs prove to be more reliable and economical than single energy source systems. This study examines the feasibility of a combined dispatch (CD) control strategy for a photovoltaic (PV)/diesel/battery HES by combining the load following (LF) strategy and cycle charging (CC) strategy. HOMER software is used as a tool for optimization analysis by investigating the techno-economic and environmental performance of the proposed system under the LF strategy, CC strategy, and combined dispatch CD strategy. The simulation results reveal that the CD strategy has a net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE) values of $110,191 and $0.21/kWh, which are 20.6% and 4.8% lower than those of systems utilizing the LF and CC strategies, respectively. From an environmental point of view, the CD strategy also offers the best performance, with CO2 emissions of 27,678 kg/year. Moreover, the results show that variations in critical parameters, such as battery minimum state of charge, time step, solar radiation, diesel price, and load growth, exert considerable effects on the performance of the proposed system.