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Analysis of Hybrid Systems: Software Tools

Conference Paper · February 2016

DOI: 10.1109/AEEICB.2016.7538302

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International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB16)

Analysis of Hybrid Systems: Software Tools

A. Prashant Kumar
Electrical Engineering Department, Zeal College of Engineering and Research Narhe , Pune, India
(Contact No. +91 8928048180; e-mail: prashant2685@ gmail.com).
TABLE I
FREE VERSION SOFTWARE TOOLS
Abstract—Renewable energy hybrid system is one of the most
promising, economical, and reliable option for electrifying rural
areas. Hybrid energy Systems are being utilized for minimizing Software name Manufacturer/Developing Cost
usage of fossil fuels to reduce environment effects. But analysis of institute
Hybrid System is quit complex, therefore it requires software
tools for design, analyze and optimization of software. The main HOMER Mistaya Engineering, Free
objective of this paper is to introduce various major software
tools required for design, analyze and optimization of hybrid Canada
system. The softwares discussed are HOMER, RETScreen, RETScreen Natural Resources Canada Free
PVsyst, iHOGA.
PVsyst Institute of Environmental Free
Index Terms— Hybrid system; renewable energy; simulation Sciences (ISE), University
of Geneva, Switzerland
iHOGA University of Zaragoza, EDU
I. INTRODUCTION
In this advanced era, population is increased day by day, Spain version is
which leads to power crisis. Consistent and secure power free
supply is necessary for economic development. In most of
rural areas electricity is not there due to extension of grid
connection is economical, here we can install standalone II. SOFTWARE TOOLS

hybrid system to electrifying rural areas. Fossil fuel

reservation is a worldwide problem, they pollutes environment
by emission. One the other hand renewable energy sources are
available at free of cost in nature and can produce electricity
from them. But only one renewable energy based system is
economical and not reliable because they are seasonal and not
with us throughout the year continuously, hence we are
approaching towards hybrid system.
Hybrid system solution is complex and thus it requires
software tools which can be used for design, analysis,
simulation, economical and optimization planning. Now day’s
simulation has got worldwide application. Therefore softwares
are become cheap and easy to learn. A number of softwares
have been developed to overcome problems regarding to
optimum designing or sizing which leads to installation cost
high. In this paper we are going to discussed HOMER,
RETScreen, PVsyst, iHOGA.
A. Available Softwares for Hybrid system Simulation
Some major hybrid system simulation softwares tools are
tabulated in table 1, with their manufacturer or developing
institutions and availability [2].
A. HOMER
HOMER means Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric
Renewable. It is most widely used Software. HOMER is
developed for National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) USA by Mistaya Engineering, Canada in 1993. It
works on three principles Simulation, Optimization and
Sensitivity analysis. Simulation performs energy balance
calculations based on system configuration. Optimization
operation displays list of configurations based on total net
present cost. The system takes account the calculations for
installation, replacement, operation and maintenance, fuel and
real interest costs. Sensitivity analysis determines varying
factors such as wind speed, fuel cost. HOMER evaluates
design for standalone and grid connected power system. It
displays simulation results in a various forms of tables and
graphs which help to compare configurations and evaluate
them on their economic merits.
HOMER Pro 3.1 is release on January 20, 2015 it has full
HOMER 2 capability and much more to HOMER Pro.
HOMER Pro 3.1 is a free upgrade and it includes two new
modules – advanced grid and hydrogen.

HOMER is in use throughout the world, and over 110,000.

978-1-4673-9745-2 ©2016 IEEE
International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB16)

Version 3.1 of HOMER Pro includes major performance like

adds graphing capability and user can his own battery and
wind turbine and many other new features and capabilities.
HOMER 3.3 is released on July 2015.

Fig.1 Schematic Representation of HOMER. Fig. 2 Simulation result of HOMER

B. RETScreen
1) Analysis capabilities: Renewable Energy Technologies Screen (RETScreen) is
developed in Canada by Ministry of Natural Resources for
• Economic Analysis evaluating economical and environmental cost. It is freely
• Technical Analysis available tool. It has database of a global climate more than
• PV System 5000 ground Stations energy resource maps, hydrology data,
• Wind System product data. Two versions of RETScreen are available,
• Generator RETScreen Plus and RETScreen 4 . Energy performance
• Storage device study is done by RETScreen Plus. RETScreen Plus is a
• Bio-energy Windows-based energy management software tool.
• Hydro energy RETScreen 4 is based on Microsoft excel and works on
energy project analysis. It provides energy analysis, cost
2) Advantages: analysis, sensitivity or risk analysis, emission analysis,
financial analysis for user listed below [9], [14].
• It has hourly data handling capacity.
• It provides results in graphical and tabular form. 1) Analysis capabilities:
• HOMER is easy to understand, freely accessible.
• Graphs can import in users documents. • Economic Analysis
• It can considers sales or purchase of electricity from grid • Technical Analysis
• Computational time is very less. • PV System
• Wind System
3) Disadvantages: • Storage device
• It allows using only imperial units.
• Time series data in a form of daily average cannot be
Imported.
• It does not have analysis capabilities in Thermal system.
• Fluctuation in bus voltage is not taken into account.

Fig.3 Schematic Representation of RETScreen.

978-1-4673-9745-2 ©2016 IEEE

International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB16)

Fig.5 Schematic Representation of PVsyst

1) Analysis capabilities:

• Economic analysis
• Technical analysis
• PV system

Fig.4 Sensitivity and risk analysis result of RETScreen

2) Advantages:

• Main strength is financial analysis

• Easy to use due to EXCEL based software.

3) Disadvantages:

• Data or files cannot be imported

• Lots of limitations for search
• Less data input
• Generator, hydro energy, bio energy, Thermal system
analysis cannot be performed.

C. PVsyst Fig.6 Simulation result of PVsyst.

PVsyst is used for grid-connected, stand-alone, pumping

and DC-grid systems. It performs sizing, simulation and data
analysis [1], [12].This software has multi-language interface
in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Working
platform of this software is Windows 7, windows 8, Vista.
PVsyst proposes multiple objects to illustrate shading
parameters and capability to define multiple PV fields and
simulate PV systems with assorted directions. This gives
output as graphs of the behavior of components, behavior of
electrical PV array under partial shading, on graph
comparison with clear day model, generation of meteo hourly
synthetic files from monthly values, quick meteo calculations
on hourly meteo plots and irradiation calculation. Its latest
Version 6.35 is release on 24.03.2015 [5].
2) Advantages:
• It draws Loss Diagram to identify the weaknesses of the
system design.
• This system analyzes the real running parameters of the
system, identify very little misrunning.
• All result graphs, tables can be exported to other
software.
• Rough estimation of cost available.
3) Disadvantages:
• Hidden parameters were not modifiable (bug).
• Error in the simulation in V 6.33 and 6.34
• Sometimes errors in the display of number of strings.

978-1-4673-9745-2 ©2016 IEEE

International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB16)
D. iHOGA
It is modified Hybrid Optimization by Genetic
Algorithm. iHOGA is developed by University of Zaragoza,
Spain . It is formerly called as HOGA. It is the modified
version of the iGRHYSO. There are two version of iHOGA,
EBU and PRO. EDU version of iHOGA is freely available
have some limitations but PRO is a priced version without any
limitations. iHOGA is available only in Spanish language. It
only runs in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8. This software is used
for temperature effect on photovoltaic generation and
production by wind turbines. It calculates life cycle emissions
.This tool also considers different types of sales/purchase of
electricity from grid. Data exportation is available in this
software. iHOGA gives highly accurate models. It uses multi
or mono objective optimization using Genetic Algorithm.
Version 2.2 is released on November 2013 [10].
Fig.7 Schematic Representation of iHOGA.
1) Advantages:
• It uses genetic algorithms to optimize hybrid systems in
lesser time
• It do probability analysis
• Very accurate models for resources, for components and
for economical calculations
• optimizes the slope of the PV panels
• Any case of net-metering can be simulated by iHOGA
2) Disadvantage
• EDU version has limitations of total average daily load.
• For activation of license Internet connection is required.
Fig.8 Simulation result of Ihoga
III. CONCLUSION
978-1-4673-9745-2 ©2016 IEEE
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In this era, there are lots of advancement in the field of
software programming that is for analyzing Hybrid System at
free of cost. All the above mentioned software tools in this
paper are user-friendly. We can analyze the Hybrid System
very fast with the help of these software tools. So this paper
will be helpful in understanding the handling of available
softwares.
REFERENCES
[1] Mahendra Lalwani, D.P. Kothari, Mool Singh, “Investigation of Solar
Photovoltaic Simulation Softwares” International journal of applied
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[2] Sunanda Sinha, Shyam Chandel,“On Review of software tools for
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[3] Cihan Gokcol, Bahtiyar Dursunj, “Determination Of The Optimum
Renewable Power Generating Systems For An Educational Campus In
Kirklareli University” Electronic Journal of Vocational Colleges.
[4] Edwin Xaview Dominguez Gavilanes,“Power demand modeling and
reliability analysis for residential nearly-zero energy buildings. ”
[5] www.pvsyst.com
[6] iHOGA user manual,by Dr.Rodolfo Dufo-Lopez.
[7] User's Guide, PVsyst Contextual Help, PVsyst SA 1994-2012.
[8] T. Givler and P. Lilienthal,“Using HOMER® Software, NREL’s
Micropower Optimization Model, to Explore the Role of Gen-sets in
Small Solar Power Systems Case Study: Sri Lanka” Technical Report
NREL/TP-710-36774 May 2005.
[9] www.retscreen.net
[10] ihoga.software.informer.com
[11] Law Averill M. and McComas Michael G., 1994, “Simulation Software
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[12] 2. Tiba C. and Barbosa E. M. de S., 2001, “Softwares for designing,
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[13] 3. Verma Rajesh, Gupta Ashu and Singh Kawaljeet, 2008, “Simulation
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[14] “Natural Resources Canada”, www.retscreen.net, accessed on 2nd
October, 2010.5.
[15] “A TRaNsient SYstems Simulation Program”,
http://sel.me.wisc.edu/trnsys, accessed on4th October, 2010.
[16] “New Distribution Process for NREL's HOMER Model”,
www.nrel.gov/homer, accessed on 8th October, 2010.