Optimal Sizing of Hybrid Energy Systems in a Microgrid

Abstract

With the ever-growing energy demand and coupled with the issues of reliability. Microgrids powered by distributed conventional and renewable energy sources can be utilized to address this problem. Hybrid energy sources offers better reliability and cost effectiveness than a single energy source. Determining the right size of Hybrid Energy Systems is of great importance in order to avoid over-sizing or under-sizing which could greatly affect the cost and reliability of the system. Optimal sizing becomes highly complex when considering multiple hybrid mix and also considering various objectives such as cost, emission, reliability etc. This paper aims at critically evaluating the various cost objectives, reliability indices, mathematical models, and optimization techniques used in optimal sizing of various of hybrid energy mix. It has been found that meta-heuristic techniques are well suited for optimal sizing with Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization techniques being the most commonly used Algorithms. Also, the Hybrid Optimization for Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) stands out as the widely accepted and used optimization software tool. Keywords—Distributed Generation, Hybrid Energy Systems, Microgrids, Optimization, Renewable Energy