Abstract:
This paper presents an optimal energy management model of a solar photovoltaic-diesel-battery hybrid
power supply system for off-grid applications. The aim is to meet the load demand completely while satisfying
the system constraints. The proposed model minimizes fuel and battery wear costs and finds the
optimal power flow, taking into account photovoltaic power availability, battery bank state of charge and
load power demand. The optimal solutions are compared for cases when the objectives are weighted
equally and when a larger weight is assigned to battery wear. A considerable increase in system operational
cost is observed in the latter case owing to the increased usage of the diesel generator. The results
are important for decision makers, as they depict the optimal decisions considered in the presence of
trade-offs between conflicting objectives.
