Optimal power dispatch of an off-grid renewable energy-
based system using linear programming
Oliver Dzobo
2022 57th International Universities Power Engineering Conference (UPEC) | 978-1-6654-5505-3/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/UPEC55022.2022.9917588
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Science
University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa
olived@uj.ac.za
Abstract – The provision of electricity through renewable
energy sources have become the pivot for sustainable development
in most remote rural communities. This paper presents the
optimal power dispatch of an off-grid hybrid energy system
which consists of a solar PV, wind energy and small hydropower
system. Linear programming technique is proposed to solve the
optimization problem. The objective of the optimization problem
is to minimize the cost of electricity taking into account the
constraints of the hybrid energy system. A case study for a remote
rural community in Zimbabwe is used for this study. The results
show that the off-grid renewable energy system is able to supply
the load demand of the rural community and it is therefore a
feasible solution for energy provision in remote rural
communities.
Index Terms – hybrid energy system, rural communities,
renewable energy source, linear programming, optimization.
I. INTRODUCTION
The major challenge facing the world today is the
provision of electricity in remote rural areas where the
conventional electric grid are not possible to construct [1 – 4].
This is exacerbated by technology advancement that has
reached almost every part of the world and its need for
electricity for its proper functionality. Electricity has therefore
become the backbone of any development in every
community.
Government of different economies have developed policies
focusing on the increasing demand of electricity [5 – 6]. On
the forefront of different energy policy proposals is the
provision of electricity to remote areas using renewable energy
sources. Renewable energy sources are most preferred because
they are versatile as they can be implemented where the
conventional grid is not possible to reach. They can be
constructed in standalone applications and are also clean
technology which reduces greenhouse gas emission thus
promoting a sustainable energy solution to remote
communities. The main disadvantage of renewable energy
sources is the inherent intermittence nature of each renewable
energy source which poses a hitch to supplying loads that
needs continuous power supply. However, this can be nullified
by connecting different renewable energy sources together to
form a hybrid energy system. Each renewable energy source
will supply the load when it is available. The appropriate
selection of the renewable energy source to supply the load at
any given time is essential and challenging task in the
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designing of the off-grid renewable energy system. This is
because if the energy system is oversized it means additional
operation costs while undersized energy system means the
energy system will not able to meet the load demand and
therefore not reliable. The appropriate selection of renewable
energy sources would ensure that the cheapest energy source is
used to supply the load and therefore the operation cost of the
hybrid energy system is kept to minimum.
Several research studies have been conducted for hybrid
energy system cost optimization according to load demand and
renewable energy sources available [1 – 6]. In ref [7] an off-
grid hybrid energy system is proposed which consists of hydro
and solar resources. The hybrid energy system supplies
electricity to a rural community in Cameroon. A steady state
modelling is applied in ref [8] under consideration of different
renewable energy sources – micro-hydropower system, biogas,
biomass, solar PV and diesel generator. Linear programming
technique is used to determine the optimal sizing and power
dispatch of the proposed hybrid energy system. Optimal
energy management model for a solar PV, diesel generator and
battery storage system is presented in ref [9]. The proposed
optimization model minimizes the diesel generator fuel costs
and batter wear costs taking into account the solar PV
constraints, battery storage system state of charge and load
demand. Commonly, Homer is used to perform simplified
optimization model of hybrid renewable energy systems. It is
possible to match the supply and demand of a given
community or load and obtain the optimal hybrid energy
system. However, the major disadvantage of HOMER is that
the resultant optimal solution is based on the input parameter
range used by the user. In some cases, the resultant optimal
solution lies outside the range used by the user and thus
techniques such as linear programming technique are used.
This research study focuses on the minimization of the
operational costs of the proposed hybrid energy system during
a 24-hour period. Linear programming technique is used to
find the optimal solution of the proposed hybrid energy
system. It has the advantage of low computational
requirements and is much faster and accurate in achieving the
optimal results.
The use of battery bank for storage of electricity has been seen
by many researchers as an attractive option to cater for periods
when there are no renewable energy sources available to
produce electricity [10 -12]. Sometimes diesel generators are
also taken as better options over battery storage systems
especially when the fuel is readily available [10 -12]. energy production option is the heavy decrease in the initial
However, both battery banks and diesel generators increase the cost of solar PV modules. The adoption of solar PV systems
cost of energy production with an added disadvantage of high has been generally higher in off-grid systems than in on-grid
environmental impact [13, 14]. The disposal of batteries after systems. Solar PV off-grid systems are commonly used as
their life use is very difficult especially in rural communities solar PV home systems which consists of an array of solar PV
were the technical knowledge of how to dispose them is not and a battery. Solar PV systems provide DC and therefore AC
readily available [14]. Diesel generators on the other hand inverter is normally employed to supply AC loads. The
increase pollution of greenhouse gas into the air as well as inverter generally reduces the efficiency of the solar PV
noise during its operation. Based on these demerits, a hybrid system from 4% - 14% depending on the type of solar PV
renewable energy system consisting of solar PV, wind energy modules used [11]. The energy produced by a solar PV system
and micro-hydropower system is proposed in this paper. is dependent on the global solar irradiation, ambient
This paper develops a model to optimize the daily production temperature and efficiency of the solar PV module. The
cost of an off-grid renewable energy system comprising of following equation is used to estimate the energy generated
solar PV, mini-hydro and wind energy system. The from a solar PV system.
optimization objective is to minimize the daily production cost
of electricity subject to load demand requirement of the rural Ps = As x I x 1000 (4)
community as well as the operational constraints of the hybrid
energy system components. Linear programming technique is where As is the area covered by the solar PV array (m2); I is the
used to determine the optimal scheduling of the different hourly solar irradiation (Wh/m2).
renewable energy sources.
II. OPTIMIZATION MODEL
A. Wind energy
In this research study the optimal scheduling of an off-grid
Small scale wind energy systems are normally considered
renewable energy system to minimize the 24-hour energy
below 100kWr. They are generally common in remote rural
production cost is considered. The minimization of the energy
communities where they are used for borehole water pumping.
production cost is done taking into account the components
In some decentralized energy systems, they can be combined
operational restrictions.
with diesel generators. Research studies have shown that there
is a cost reduction of 20 % - 60% for average wind speeds of
A. Objective function
6m/s – 10m/s [11]. The energy generated from a wind turbine
The optimization objective is to minimize the energy
is dependent on the wind speed, area of the rotor and density
production cost and can be expressed as follows:
of air. The wind turbine is normally designed to give a power
output only when the wind speed is within the cut-in and cut-
Minimize: f = Pw (t) x 1500 + Phydro x 2000 + Ps x 1200 (5)
out velocity. For a given wind velocity, v, the energy generated
by the wind turbine is given by the following equation:
The operation and maintenance cost of the wind turbine
3 system, hydropower system and solar power system is
Pw = ½ x ρ x Aw x v (2)
estimated at $1500/kW/year, $2000/kW/year and
where ρ is the air density (1.23kg/m3); Aw is the area swept by
$1200/kW/year. To find the optimal solution for the
the wind turbine (m2); v is the wind speed (m/s)
optimization objective the following constraints are
considered.
B. Hydropower energy
Hydropower systems are not very common at small scale level.
a) Power balance
Their principle of operation is similar to wind turbines. The
At any given time t the energy generated by the hybrid energy
micro-hydropower system considered in this research study is
system must be equal the load demand. The losses in each
the river runoff turbine also known as the in-stream turbine.
energy system are taken into account by including the
The energy generated by a hydropower system is calculated
efficiency of each respective energy system. This can be
using the following equation.
expressed using the following function.
Phydro = ρ x g x H x Q (3)
Pload = ηw Pw + ηhydro Phydro + ηs Ps (6)
where ηw, ηhydro, ηs is the efficiency of the wind turbine
where g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s2); H is the
system, hydropower system and solar PV system respectively.
total head of water (m); Q is the water flow rate from the
reservoir onto the water turbine (m3/s)
b) Component constraints
The solar PV, wind turbine, and hydropower systems are
C. Solar energy
modelled as variable power sources. The energy generated
The use of solar PV systems has increased exponentially in
from each respective renewable energy source is controlled in
recent years. The main driver for its adoption as an alternative

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the range from zero to their rated power in the 24 -hour period.
The constraints can be expressed as follows:

0 ≤ Pw ≤ Pmax w (7)
0 ≤ Phydro ≤ Pmax hydro (8)
0 ≤ Ps ≤ Pmax s (9)

Eqns 7 – 9 describe the restrictions of the wind turbine,

hydropower and solar PV systems respectively.

The objective function is solved using linear programming

technique in MATLAB software. The inbuilt function linprog
solve problems in the following format: Figure 1: Power flow of proposed hybrid energy system model
y = linprog(f, A, b, Aeq, beq, lb, ub) (10)
Table 1 shows the specifications of the system components of
Minimize f subject to: the hybrid energy system. The hourly wind and solar
Ax ≤ b (11) irradiation data are taken from ref [16] on a summer wind day.
Aeq = beq (12) The average water flow rate is taken as 100L/s [15]. The load
lb ≤ x ≤ ub (13) demand is estimated from the projected load in ref. [15].

where f is the objective function; eqns 11 – 12 represent the Table 1: System specifications
inequality constraints, equality constraints and, lower and Solar PV
upper limits of the variables respectively. Solar PV rating 8kWp
Area 12m2
III. CASE STUDY ηs 20%

The remote rural area considered in this research study is Wind turbine
Chipendeke rural community in Mutare, Zimbabwe. A 25kW Wind turbine rating 10kW
mini-hydropower system is already installed [15]. However, Swept area 84.82m2
due to climate changes, the mini-hydropower system is not ηw 59.26%
able to produce to its full design capacity. Hence, there is need Hydro turbine
to compliment the mini hydropower system with other Hydropower system rating 25kW
renewable energy sources. In this research study the solar PV Height 41m
and wind energy systems are considered as the additional 80%
ηhydro
renewable energy sources that can be used to complement the
mini-hydropower system.

A. Off-grid renewable energy system model Table 2: System input data

Time (hr) Wind speed Solar Load data

Figure 1 below shows the power flow diagram for the
(m/s) irradiation (kW)
proposed off-grid hybrid energy system for the remote rural 1 2.6 0 1.5
community. The load requirement is met by all the renewable 2 2.6 0 1.5
energy sources depending on their availability and energy 3 2.6 0 1.5
production cost. The optimal energy production is used to 4 2.6 0 1.5
supply the load. 5 2.1 0 5.8
6 2.1 0 9.0
7 4.6 3.70 6.0
8 5.1 3.84 7.0
9 5.1 4.59 7.2
10 2.6 5.19 5.5
11 4.6 4.79 3.5
12 2.1 3.86 4.5
13 2.6 4.10 5.0
14 2.6 4.59 6.0
15 2.6 5.21 4.0
16 2.6 5.08 3.5
17 2.1 5.02 3.5
18 2.1 0 7.0
19 4.6 0 6.5

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 20 5.1 0 9.0
21 5.1 0 4.9
22 2.6 0 5.0
23 4.6 0 1.5
24 2.1 0 2.0

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 2 – 5 below show the optimal results of the proposed
off-grid renewable energy system. It is clear from Figure 2 that
the load is lowest during the night and early morning. During
this period the hydropower and wind turbine generates
electricity to feed the load. The high cost of energy production
is also experienced during this period as the most expensive
energy production systems are used. The load starts to increase
between 05h00 and 09h00, with a peak load of 9000Wh at
06h00.
Figure 4: Optimal electricity production by different renewable
energy sources
The results show that it is very important to take into account
the cost of production of each renewable energy source so that
the lowest cost of electricity is achieved. It also show that the
use of different renewable energy sources would help reduce
the cost of production of electricity and at the same time
meeting the load requirements of the consumers.

Figure 2: Energy generated by the hybrid energy system
The cost of energy production decreases as a result of the solar
PV kicks in to produce electricity as the sun starts to shine in
the morning. The lowest cost of energy production is therefore
experienced during the afternoon between 07h00 and 17h00.
The solar PV system produces electricity at the cheapest prize
and at some time periods it is able to supply the entire load i.e.
11h00, 15h00 – 17h00. Highest cost of energy production is
experienced when the hydropower system supplies much of the
load i.e 06h00 and 18h00.
Figure 3: Hourly electricity production cost of the hybrid energy
system
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the optimal load scheduling of a hybrid
energy system consisting of different renewable energy
sources. The objective of the optimization problem is to
reduce the electricity production cost for the hybrid energy
system. Linear programming technique is employed to
optimize the hybrid energy system. A case study is presented,
and the results show that it is feasible to use different
renewable energy sources to supply load for remote
communities. The system comprises of a solar PV, small
hydropower and wind energy system. Different communities
can therefore use different renewable energy sources such as
applied in the case study for their electricity needs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank ESKOM TESP and NRF
for funding this project
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