Optimal economic study of hybrid PV-wind-fuel cell system integrated to unreliable electric utility using hybrid search optimization technique

This study addresses the problem of power outages in distant districts by taking advantage of the available renewable energy resources in the surrounding environment. This was done by proposing connecting the utility to a hybrid system constituting from photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), and fuel cell (FC) systems where this hybrid system is considered as a backup system that works when the grid is unavailable. This hybrid system proposed is used for feeding the load to a tourist resort in Hurghada, Egypt. The design of the introduced system has taken into consideration the cost of purchasing electric energy and the profit from selling it to the utility network. Component scaling was implemented to improve the net present cost of the proposed system using two grouped meta-heuristic techniques, which are the Hybrid Firefly and Harmony Search optimization technique (HFA/HS) and compared to the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. Simulation results have shown that the optimal system for solving the grid unavailability consists of eighty PVs, two WTs, twenty FCs, forty-one electrolyzers, and one hundred eighteen hydrogen tanks. The results also showed that the volume of exchange with the grid has reached 4 GW of purchase and 3 GW of sale. It is manifest from the results that the suggested system is economically viable with an LCOE of 0.0628 $/kWh, which is less than the purchase of electricity from the grid for commercial users in Egypt, which is 0.1 $/kWh. (c) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study proposes a hybrid system utilizing renewable energy resources to address power outages in distant districts. By optimizing design and considering costs, it demonstrates economic viability, providing an effective solution for supplying and selling electricity in the grid.