CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. General
Renewable energy systems (REN) are distinguished to various natural renewable
energy resources (RER) such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat,
which are naturally replenished. According to Greenpeace International, about 18% of
global electricity generation comes from renewables in 2010 [Jay R., "South African Energy
Sector Jobs to 2030", Report for Greenpeace Africa Research institute at University of Technology Sydney, 18th August

2010.]. The 18% share of renewables in electricity generation is divided into 15% of
global electricity coming from hydroelectricity and 3% from new renewables.

Nevertheless, the energy revolution scenario demonstrates how by 2020 an impressive

32% of global electricity needs can be met by renewable energy [Greenpeace International,
European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), "Energy [R]evolution 2010", pp. 47-63, 07 June 2010.].

Figure: global electricity generation today and in 2020

1
However, the global target for new renewable energy is 20% by 2020, whereas the
proposed target of UK is 15% [HOUSE OF LORDS, European Union Committee, "The EU’s Target for
Renewable Energy: 20% by 2020", Volume I: Report, 27th Report of Session 2007–2008.] .

Established technologies such as wind and solar take the early front, but rapidly
emerging technologies such as concentrating solar thermal, geothermal and ocean
energy, all contribute to 2020 energy mix. However, this thesis focuses on the
exploitation of both wind and solar technologies.

Challenging financial crisis and economic downturn during the last three years, wind
power continued rapid growth, and wind turbine installations are increased day by
day. This is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology which is clean,
reliable and quick to install. Wind power has become the power technology of choice
for a growing number of countries around the world.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the annual market of wind
energy grew a staggering 41.5% in 2009 compared to 2008. More than 38 GW of new
wind power capacity was installed around the world in 2009, bringing the total
installed capacity up to 158.5 GW. This represents a year-on-year growth of 31.7%
[Global Wind Energy Council, "Global wind 2009 report", Brussels, Belgium, 2009.]. A third of these
additions were made in China, which reports 100% growth for the fifth year in a row,
and now has more than 12 GW installed. That makes China the world’s fourth-biggest
wind market, after the U.S., Germany, and Spain [Keith Johnson, "Wind Jammers: U.S., China
Fight Out Global Wind Leadership", The Wall Street Journal, 2 Feb. 2009.].

Solar energy systems also sustained in the face of the economic disaster. In 2009, the
Photovoltaic industry production again increased by more than 50% and reached a
world-wide production volume of 11.5 GWp of Photovoltaic modules [Arnulf J. W., " EUR
24344 PV Status Report 2010", Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Union, pp. 120, Aug.

2010.]. According to a report produced by the European Commission's Joint Research

Centre, a three-quarter of global newly installed photovoltaic power generation was
located in Europe. The study reveals a different number of PV generations. It showed
that in 2009, newly installed photovoltaic (PV) cells world-wide produced a peak
amount of electricity estimated at 7.4 GW, of which 5.8 GW was located in
Europe[Hans B., Fabio M. F., Marta S. and Arnulf J. W., " Renewable Energy Snapshots 2010", Luxembourg, EUR –
Scientific and Technical Research series, June 2010, pp. 46.]. A total of 27.5 GW of new power

2
capacity was constructed in the EU in 2009. About 21% (5.8 GW) of this was PV
based. [EWEA, "Wind in power – 2009 European statistics", 2 Feb. 2010.].

Anyway, by the end of 2009, Europe's cumulative installed PV electricity generation

capacity, existing and newly installed, was 16 GW, which is about 70% of the global
cumulative PV installations of 22GW. [James Russell, "Record Growth in Photovoltaic Capacity and
Momentum Builds for Concentrating Solar Power Vital Signs", Worldwatch, 03 June 2010.]

Most of the EU's solar energy production growth in 2009 occurred in Germany of
3.8 GW, reaching a cumulative value of 9.8 GW, and in the 4th quarter, 2.3 GW were
connected to the grid. Germany is currently ranks first in the world for cumulative
installed capacity with 9.8 GW, followed by Spain with 3.5 GW. Second in the PV
growth ranking was Italy with 0.73 GW (cumulative 1.2 GW) [European Commission , "Three
quarters of new solar systems world-wide were installed in the EU in 2009", Joint Research Center, Brussels, 6 Sep.

2010.][http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=2300&obj_id=2800&dt_code=PRL&lang=en].

Next figure shows the cumulative Photovoltaic installation in worldwide.

Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest one of
these stations is Blythe Solar Power Project, with 968 MW expected power generation
located in Riverside County, California. It will be of parabolic trough design, and the
companies involved are Solar Millennium and Chevron [Scott S. , "1000-Megawatt Plant in Calif.

3
Marks New Milestone in Solar Expansion", The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2010.]. Anyway, solar thermal
power is not going to be discussed in this thesis.

Solar cell modules are connected in arrays forming a solar park to either feed a single
load or to be coupled to a network. Wind turbines generators, as well as PVs, are
connected in form wind farm feeding a single load or a network. Better reliability is
achieved by the combination of both of solar park and wind farm. According to that,
PV and WT systems can be schemed as:

Hybrid stand-alone systems, and

Grid-connected.

Hybrid systems are the main subject in this study. The earlier pages showed the rapid
development of renewable energy systems around the world, both in the developed
and developing nations. Energy schemes in both of stand alone and hybrid systems
are badly depend on weather conditions, causing a lack in power continuity due to the
intermittent nature of wind and sun. However, solar parks and wind farms generation
systems are usually accompanied with storage system to coat any energy shortage.

The high cost of storage system provides an additional cost to the total generation
schemes, and introduces a hindrance in the employment and exploitation of RENs
applications. The optimal selection of the number of solar cell panels, the size of wind
generator and the size of the storage units to be used for certain applications at a
particular site is an important economical task for electrification of isolated loads.
Isolated loads are various, they can be villages in rural areas, Sahara regions, small
island archipelagos, remote areas in developing nations, mountainous locations,
telecommunications, refrigeration, water pumping, and water heating, etc. Otherwise,
the oversized system is economic waste and it unfavorably affect further utilization of
solar and wind energy systems. Therefore, RENs sizing represents an important part
of the generation system design.

Most of studies have emphasized on the combination of more than one renewable
energy resource to reduce the effect of weather fluctuations. This bad effect is able to
be totally eliminated by storage system. Hybrid energy systems use different energy
resources such as solar and wind energy and diesel generation sets. They are an
economical option in areas isolated from the grid.

4
The present dissertation aims at acquiring the optimum sizing of hybrid system based
on alternative approach and a new approach based on the application of Real Coded
Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique (or Modified Particle Swarm).

2.2. Hybrid Stand-Alone Systems

In general, stand-alone systems are sized in such a way that the power delivered from
hybrid REN system can meet the loads either fully or partially and still function
reliably. In stand-alone systems, the storage system (such as batteries or fuel cells)
must deliver the electricity even during long overcast periods.

In grid-connected systems, there is no storage component because the grid acts as an

infinite buffer. Stand alone system may be accompanied with diesel generator, this
can effectively effect the cost. However, it is recommended for ecological issues to
avoid the insertion of any internal combustion engine.

Stand-alone system can offer a promising alternative especially in remote areas as

isolated small power generation for the essential electric power. All around the world
there are a number of small isolated communities without access to the grid.
Furthermore, in many places due to the remoteness and due to the cost, it is unlikely
that main grid connection will be ever established. However, the need for power still
exists. Stand-alone systems are differently termed as autonomous or decentralized.
The nominal power of a wind turbine to be applied in a such system is within the
range 10-200 kW. [Niels-Erik C., Henrik B., Sten F.,Jens C. H., Lars H. H., Per L., " Isolated Systems with Wind
Power an Implementation Guideline", Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark, June 2001.]

A graph, shown in Fig.2.1, describes the relationship of array to load ratio and the
load size when a hybrid system should be used. This chart is based on practical
experiences with existing systems. According to the figure, a hybrid system should be
preferred when the load is large. This is mainly because of cost considerations. Also,
if the PV array or WT size obtained for a corresponding standalone system is large
compared to the load, a hybrid system will be most economic and practical [Friedrich S.
and Thomas E., " Photovoltaics in buildings: a design handbook for architects and engineers", Earthscan Publications

Ltd., CH. 17, pages 287, January 1996.].

5
 Load [Wh/day]

Fig.2.1 System power to load energy ratio [Wp/(Wh/day)]

Undoubtedly, at the present stage of the development of PV technology, the high

investment costs of the PV systems is the major deterrent to a wider market
penetration, as noted by Severin [Severin B., "The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity
Production", CSEM program, University of California Energy Institute, Jan. 2008.]. However, estimation of
the sizing parameters PV-array area, useful capacity of battery, wind generator is very
useful to conceive an optimal PV systems as well as conceiving an optimal and
economic PV systems particularly in isolated sites.

Stand alone systems come as personal energy systems (PES) or community energy
systems (CES). Personal energy systems allow a home to produce its own energy
simply by having a rooftop solar panels to produce electricity. PES were focused on at
the recent National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. It was suggested to
deliver the surplus energy into an electrolyzer, which would break water down into
hydrogen and oxygen. These two elements would be stored in tanks and used for
energy at night and drinking water when solar power is not an option. [Daniel G. N.,

"Personalized Energy: The Home as a Solar Power Station and Solar Gas Station", ChemSusChem, WILEY-VCH

Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, Vol. 2, Issue 5, pp 387–390, 25 May 2009.][Daniel G. N., "Chemistry

of Personalized Solar Energy", Inorganic Chemistry, Vol. 48, issue 21, pp 10001–10017, 23 Sep. 2009.]

The problem is that this electrolyzer needs catalysts to produce oxygen. Catalysts for
hydrogen already exist. Nocera, however, said there is a new catalyst that leads to a
200-fold improvement oxygen production. This catalyst technology, which has been
already licensed to Nocera’s startup Sun Catalytix, would eliminate the need for
platinum and toxic chemicals to create a chemical reaction. Nocera mentioned that he
and his team have developed a nickel alloy-based electrode to replace the
prohibitively expensive platinum-based electrode typically used, but they have yet to

6
determine whether it performs as well or better. [Mircea D., Yogesh S., and Daniel G. N., " Nickel-
borate Oxygen-Evolving Catalyst That Functions Under Henign Conditions", Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences of the United States of America, 8 April 2010.]

All research centers and scientific communities have accentuated on the availability
and reliability of the technology of energy production from RENs. The penetration of
the technology depends mainly on the economic feasibility and the proper sizing of
the components in order to avoid outages as well as ensuring quality and reliability of
supply. Several models with several optimization techniques have been developed,
simulating and sizing either WT or PV systems using different operation strategies.
All of these are going to be redundantly discussed in next articles.

2.3. Meteorological Data Generation for Feasibility Study

Solar and wind energy are weather-driven and thus the decisive opinion to determine
the availability and size of solar and wind energy at a particular site belongs to the
climatic conditions. For different locations, climatic conditions, including solar
radiation, wind speed, air temperature, and so forth, are always changing. For a better
utilization of the solar and wind energy resources, an analysis of the characteristics of
solar radiation and wind conditions at a potential site should be made at the stage of
inception.

Fig.2.2. Package of meteorological instruments carried aloft by a balloon (radiosonde balloon).

7
2.3.1. Long-Term (Time-Series) Meteorological Data

The long-term system performance is one of the most important design criteria for
stand-alone hybrid solar–wind energy systems. Some researchers used time-series
meteorological data or long-term data (LTD) for feasibility study and design of the
hybrid systems. Weather data containing hourly solar radiation, wind speed, and
ambient temperature are required in the performance simulation of these systems.

Meteorological parameters could be obtained from records represented in the

SOLMET long-term data files [National Climatic Center, United States. Dept. of Energy, "SOLMET TD-
9724: hourly solar radiation - surface meteorological observations", USCOMM-NOAA, 1978.]. The files are
composed of hourly readings of meteorological phenomena for the period between
1952 and 1975. These records are very old, and there are only twenty-six cities for
which this data has been collected. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) recently released a new set of long-term data. The National Solar Radiation
Data Base (NSRDB) is a collection of data from 1961-1990 for 239 cities.[National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), "Users Manual National Solar Radiation Data Base- 1961- 1990", NSRDB, Vol.

1, 105p, 1992]. However, there were only twenty-six primary stations. The secondary
stations had their data generated by Meteorological/Statistical (METSTAT) model. In
all, only ten percent of the data in the NSRDB is real; the remaining ninety percent
was generated by METSTAT [Marion W. and Myers D., "A comparison of data from SOLMET/ERSATZ
and the National Solar Radiation Data Base", NREL Report, NREL/TP--463-5118, 01 Nov. 1992.]. In recent, the
global meteorological parameters could be obtained from data sets given in global
Solar Radiation Atlas and the global Wind Atlas on the internet
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse. It should be noted, however, the patterns can only
help in the evaluation of hybrid solar and wind system, but not in sizing decision.

Until now, a lot of researches have been done on solar and wind energy resource
analysis, the possibilities of utilizing solar and wind energy resources in many regions
or countries have been reported in many papers. Kimura Y. et al.[Kimura Y, Onai Y,

Ushiyama L., "A demonstrative study for the wind and solar hybrid power system", Renewable Energy, Vol. 9, issue 1-4,

pp. 895–898, Sep.-Dec.1996.]have conducted the field test of a small scale hybrid power
system installed at Ashikaga Institute of Technology in Japan for the purpose of
demonstrating the complementary effect as the energy resource between wind energy
and solar energy.

8
For European sites, Beyer G. et al.[Beyer G. and Langer C., "A method for the identification of

configurations of PV/ Wind hybrid systems for the reliable supply of small loads", Solar Energy, Vol. 57, No. 5, pp. 381-

391, 1996.] show that the determination of configurations of hybrid systems with a high
level of reliability is governed by a limited number of meteorological parameters. As
input for a sizing procedure, characteristic parameters of the wind and the irradiance
conditions for the month with the lowest irradiance and the months with the lowest
average wind speed are needed. Based on these parameters an analytical method may
be used for a quick identification of the respective system configurations.

A techno-economic study to design a hybrid solar photo-voltaic-wind domestic power

generating system for a site on the western coast of India is described in [Behave A.,

"Hybrid solar–wind domestic power generating system: a case study", Renew Energy, Vol. 17, issue 3, pp.355–358, 1999]

In [Elhadidy M. and Shaahid S., "Parametric study of hybrid (wind + solar + diesel) power generating systems", Renew
Energy, Vol. 21, issue 2, pp. 129-139, 2000.] investigation, hourly wind-speed and solar radiation
measurements made at the solar radiation and meteorological monitoring station,
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, have been analyzed to study the impact of key parameters
such as PV array area, number of wind turbines, and battery storage capacity on the
operation of hybrid (wind + solar + diesel) energy conversion systems, while
satisfying a specific annual load of 41,500 kWh.

2.3.2. Statistical Meteorological Data

The analysis of renewable energy hybrid systems using long-term average measured
data series from many years of available data series causes an expensive
computational efforts with the drawback that the averaged values do not take directly
into account the extreme meteorological values reached in the year. Moreover, the
simulation using a single year of meteorological data only reflect the performance of
the system for that particular year. It would be statistically more accurate to employ
many years of data to determine system performance.

On the other hand, many locations outside the USA, Canada, West Europe, Japan, etc,
suffer the absence of detailed meteorological data records. However, with no panic
here at all, for most locations the long-term (monthly) averages and other statistics of
the major weather variables (typically dry-bulb temperature, wind speed and global

9
radiation) can be found in widely available atlas and meteorological publications
around the world. Consequently, weather data can be obtained in many ways.

2.3.2.1. Nearby Available Meteorology data

The weather data may be extrapolated from a nearby site by making a necessary
adjustments as described in [Abdel Wahab M., Essa K. S. M., "Extrapolation of solar irradiation

measurements: case study over Egypt", Renew Energy, Vol. 14, issue 1-4, pp. 229-239, May-August 1998]. The
proposed method involves calculation of the standard deviation of the daily
differences in solar radiation receipt for each couple of measurement stations to
determine the variability coefficient. This is related to distance between station pairs
to establish relationship due to extrapolation distance. Standard deviation for N
variable is given as:

1 N 2
i 1
xi x
N

2.3.2.2. Typical Meteorological Year (TMY)

Several rather arbitrary and chaotic methods have been employed in the past to select
a year of data from the long-term data files for a simulation study in a particular
location. To address this problem, the Department of Energy contracted Sandia
Laboratories to generate a Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) for each of a twenty
six U.S. cities having a long period of record hourly meteorological data [ Thomas L. F.,
"Evaluation of The Typical Meteorological Years for Solar Heating and Cooling System Studies", Solar Energy Research

Institute, UC Category: UC 59, 59 c, Dec. 1979]. The most popular method for deriving the TMY
data, firstly developed by Hall et al. [Hall I., Prairie R., Anderson H. and Boes E., "Generation of a
typical meteorological year', Proceedings of the 1978 annual meeting of the American Scientists of ISES, Denver, Vol. 2,

No. 2, 1978], is an empirical approach selecting individual months from different years
using the Filkenstein–Schafer statistical method [Filkenstein J. and Schafer R., "Improved goodness
to fit tests", Biometrica, Vol. 58, issue 3, pp. 641-645, 1971.]. A typical month for each of the twelve
calendar months was selected from the approximately twenty three year SOLMET
data base for each site. These typical months were then linked together to form the
TMYs and the discontinuities in the measurements at the month interfaces were
smoothed. Therefore, the months that comprise the typical meteorological year are not
averages but rather actual data. The final selection involved examining statistics and
the persistence structure of the daily dry bulb temperatures and daily total global solar

10
radiation. Data for many other locations, called ERSATZ data were generated
[Menicucci D., Fernandez J., "A Comparison of Typical Year Solar Radiation Information with the SOLMET Data
Base), SAND87-2379, Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratories. 1988.].

TMY depend on the application of the statistical properties of meteorological data, as

reported by Gansler et al.[Gansler R., Klein S., and Beckman W., "Assessment of accuracy of generated

meteorological data for use in solar energy simulation studies", Solar Energy, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp. 279-287, September

1994], to yield a dataset of hourly meteorological variables throughout a year.

The advantage in TMY is representing a typical rather than extreme conditions in the
site.

Typical meteorological year, test reference year, (TRY), or design reference year
(DRY) are all refer to datasets with a sequence of 8670 hourly data values of
meteorological variables. However, TMY Methodologies use a modified version of
Hall et al. [Hall I., Prairie R., Anderson H. and Boes E., "Generation of a typical meteorological year', Proceedings
of the 1978 annual meeting of the American Scientists of ISES, Denver, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1978] just like in [ Pissimanis,
D., Karras G., Notaridou V. and Gavra K., "The generation of a Typical Meteorological Year for the city of Athens",

Solar Energy, Vol, 40, pp. 405–411, 1988.][Marion W. and Urban K., " User's manual for TMY2s typical meteorological

years", National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, pp. 49, 1995.][ Petrakis M., Coauthors, "Generation of a

typical meteorological year for Nicosia, Cyprus", Renewable Energy, Vol. 13, issue 3, pp. 381–388, 1998], whereas
TRY methodologies use different algorithms according to authors and typical months
are selected in a way that the monthly average, standard deviation and the sequence of
daily parameters of the TRY are close to the corresponding values of long-term
measured data series. However, but all of them share the common feature that they
use real meteorological and radiation measured data values to build a single year of
data.

To develop the TMY for a location, continuous hourly weather data is to be collected
from an automated weather station located in the region for long time period. Data
should be collected for three variables needed to formulate the TMY: global solar
radiation on a horizontal surface, ambient temperature, and wind speed. The data is
then divided into 12 monthly sets, each containing the three meteorological
parameters. To determine the most suitable months a short- and long-term mean is
determined for each of the parameters. The short-term mean is developed by taking
the mean of the hourly values of a particular parameter for the entire month of a

11
particular year. The long-term mean is determined by taking the mean of the monthly
parameter values over the entire data set of 10 years. Additionally, where a leap year
occurred, the hourly values for 29 February were removed from the calculations so
that each February was assumed to have only 28 days. Subsequently, the short-term
means is compared to the long-term mean for the month. The month with the closest
match between the mean values of the parameters was thus selected as the typical
meteorological month for the TMY. Because adjacent months in the TMY may be
selected from different years, discontinuities at the month interfaces are smoothed for
6 hours on each side [Anderson T. N., Duke M. & Carson J., "A typical meteorological year for energy

simulations in Hamilton", New Zealand. IPENZ Engineering treNz, 2007-003].

Other studies derived TMYs for different cities with different TMY methodologies
[Merter U. and Arif I., "Typical weather data of main Turkish cities for energy application", International Journal of
Energy Research, Vol. 24, issue 8, pp. 727-748, 25 june 2000.][ Zhang Q., Huang J. and Lang S., "Development of typical

year weather data for Chinese location", ASHRAE Trans, Vol. 108, No. 2, pp. 1063–1075, 2002.]. The different
TMY methodologies have been developed with selection criteria based on only solar
radiation or on solar radiation together with other meteorological variables. However,
generation of solar radiation, in particular, wind speed and temperature data, has been
the objective of several studies. Among these studies, Gordon and Reddy developed a
solar radiation generator on an hourly basis [Gordon JM, Reddy TA. Time series analysis of hourly
global horizontal solar radiation. Solar Energy 1988;41(5):423–9.], and on a daily basis [Gordon JM, Reddy
TA. Time series analysis of daily horizontal solar radiation. Solar Energy 1988;41(3):215–26.].

A stochastic simulations of hourly and daily-average wind speeds were made in

[Baklouktsis A, Tsanakas D, Vachtsevanos G. Stochastic simulation of hourly and daily average wind speed sequences.
Wind Energy 1986;10(1):1–11.]. Yang and Lu [Yang HX, Lu L. Study on typical meteorological years and their
effect on building energy and renewable energy simulations. ASHRAE Trans 2004;110(2):424–31.] developed a
local TMY for solar and wind energy application and evaluation. Their work has also
proved that determining proper weather parameters and their weighting factors is
imperative for the development of the TMYs for different kinds of renewable energy
systems. Based on statistical meteorological data, various feasibility and performance
studies are reported to evaluate the performance of various hybrid solar–wind energy
systems [Elhadidy M., "Performance evaluation of hybrid (wind/solar/diesel) power systems", Renew Energy, Vol.
26, No. 3, pp. 401–413, 2002.][Celik A., "Optimization and techno-economic analysis of autonomous photovoltaic–wind

12
hybrid energy systems in comparison to single photovoltaic and wind systems", Energy Convers. Manage, Vol. 43, No. 18,

pp. 2453–2468, 2002.].

2.3.2.3. Average Day (AVG) models.

The average day model (AVG) requires monthly average daily values of the
horizontal radiation along with ambient temperature as inputs. For a specified value of
the monthly average daily clearness index (kt) daily terrestrial horizontal radiation on
site (Id) is computed. A clearness index kt is the ratio of terrestrial to extraterrestrial
radiation on a horizontal surface. It can be determined from figures or tables.

Fig. 139 World map giving average annual Clearness Index for solar distribution

On the same figure, a reference on the lower left side gives the corresponding values
of the extraterrestrial horizontal radiation Io. Hence, the daily terrestrial horizontal
radiation Id is given as:

Id k t I o …………….……………………(2-1)

For Cairo city, the capital of Egypt, North Africa, the map shows Cairo in the zone
between 60 and 70%, at say 64%. The latitude of Cairo is approximately 30°N, so
reference to the mean global extraterrestrial radiation chart in Fig. 139 gives a mean
of 8.82 kWh/m2. This needs to be multiplied by the relevant Clearness Index of 63%,
which yields 0.63 × 8.82 = 5.55 kWh/m2 per day on average.

13
Then, for the hourly horizontal radiation, Ih, is calculated as from Id at the midpoint of
the hour on the average day of the month.

Ih rt I d ……………...……………………(2-2)

cos w cos ws
rt a b cos w ………..…………(2-3)
24 ws
sin ws cos ws
180

a 0.409 0.5016 sin( ws 60) …….….……………(2-4)

b 0.6609 0.4767 sin( ws 60) …….….……………(2-5)

Where rt is the Ratio of hourly to daily total horizontal radiation, w is hour angle, and
ws is the sunset hour angle. The hour angle of the sun is the number of degrees the
earth must turn before the sun is directly over the local meridian. Therefore, it is
the difference between the meridian of sun and the local meridian, with positive
values occurring in the morning before the sun crosses the local meridian[Gilbert M.
M., " Renewable and efficient electric power systems", Wiley-IEEE, 2004.]. Considering the earth to rotate
360o in 24 hours, or 15o/h, the hour angle can be described as follows:

w (15 ) hours before soalr noon . …….….…………(2-6)

Thus the hour angle at 11:00 A.M. solar time would be +15o. At 2:00 P.M. solar time
w would be -30o. The hour angle of the sun, in the next figure, is given by the
angle Z-NCP-X. Z is the observer, NCP north pole and X the sun.

14
 Fig. … Hour angle of the sun

Sunset hour angle is the positive value of the next equation:

ws = arccos(-tan( )×tan( ))……..….….…………(2-7)

where is the latitude of the observer on the Earth;

is the sun declination.

The meteorological data for the average day of the month are then used at each day of
the month. Every day is symmetrical about noon and identical to every other day in
that month in terms of horizontal radiation and ambient temperature[Gansler R. A.,

"Assessment of generated meteorological data for use in solar energy simulations", M.S. Thesis, Mechanical Engineering

Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1993.] .

The monthly average hourly ambient temperature is determined by applying Erbs

temperature model over the monthly average daily ambient temperature [Erbs D.G.,

"Models and Applications for Water Statistics Related to Building Heating and Cooling Loads", Ph.D. Thesis, University

of Wisconsin-Madison, 1984]. This model was developed to determine validity of estimating

system performance using a single average day to represent the month.

紀貴企 企? ? ? ?軌 企 ‫ ﺑ ﻌ ﺎ ﻣ ﻞ ا ﻟ ﺼ ﻔ ﺎ ء‬軌 企‫?ﺑ ﻀ ﺮ ب‬ 企? ?軌 企?棋 企?

‫ ا ﻟ ﺨ ﺎ ص ﻟ ﻜ ﻞ ﺳ ﺎ ﻋ ﺔ‬rt?畿 ? 企?伎 ? ? ? ? ? 企? ? 企? ?貴
. 企?徽 ‫? ? ? أ‬徽 企?企 尭? ?徽 ?
2.3.2.4. Climate Reference Year (CRY)

A climate reference year (CRY) is generated by relying on generally meteorological

variables. The available data consisted of monthly average values for the main

15
weather variables based on long-term measurements. Assuming ideal variations of
each weather variable hourly values were generated and implemented in a weather
data input file.

The available data can be used to generate hourly weather data, by applying a
methodology as described by Knight et al.[Knight KM, Klein SA, Duffie JA., "A methodology for the
synthesis of hourly weather data", Solar Energy, Vol. 46, issue 2, pp. 109-120, 1991.]. The algorithm developed
by requires the input of monthly-average solar radiation and generates the hourly solar
radiation based on the cumulative frequency distributions of the daily clearness index.
It was essentially a similar methodology which was suggested and reported by the
author Dunovska T. to generate synthetic hourly weather data for Prague[Dunovska, T.

"Energy conservation and comfort improvement for house in Prague via computer simulation", Eindhoven University of

Technology, project report, 1993.] with an assumption of 24 hours sinusoidal variation for
temperature.

There are some problems associated with CRY model. The main problem is that the
weather includes several variables (temperature, solar radiation, wind, etc.) which are
not necessarily correlated; i.e. it is possible to have both, relatively, warm and cold
days with a lot of solar radiation, and also have both relatively, warm and cold days
with very low solar radiation. This correlation is absent in CRY methodology.

2.4. Simulation and Modeling Tools of Hybrid System

After pre-feasibility study the selection of proper sizing of equipment is made based
on weather data and maximum capacity. The unit sizing of integrated power system
plays an important role in deciding the reliability and economy of the system. Many
approaches are devoted to find out the economic and reliable solution. One approach
to this problem is to use a computer simulation and optimization software, with
instantaneous efficiency and hourly solar radiation and wind speed data as inputs. The
another approach depends on the exploitation of optimization techniques based on a
search technique to extract the optimal solution.

Every field of renewable energy system (REN) system application has its own
requirements for the computer programs. The REN system salesmen, promoters,
consultants and planners, require a pre-feasibility tool to determine weather the REN

16
system makes sense for a specified application, both in terms of the energy provided
and the lifetime cost analyses of stand-alone system.

REN system designers and installers need a software determines the optimal size of
each of the different components of the system and gives information about system
reliability. Sizing tools optimize to explicitly minimize the life-cycle cost of the
system.

The end user asks for software to simulate the performance of a REN system given
various meteorological and load conditions and allowing the comparison of predicted
results with measured data to detect possible faults within the REN system. These
simulation tools are opposed to sizing tools, the user must specify the nature and size
of each component.

Researchers require a high level of flexibility in the interaction of the components to

perform R&D at component and systems level. Traditional simulation tools generally
do not permit the user to modify the algorithms that determine the behavior and
interactions of the individual components. For this, an open architecture is required.
Such research tools can be programmed and compiled in a language such as Fortran,
C, Pascal or Matlab. However, the result is typically a traditional sizing or simulation
tool. Here is a glance for the most popular sizing tools.

2.4.1. HOMER

Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER), is considered as the

most preferred sizing tool. It is developed by NREL (National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy), this tool offers a powerful user interface
with detailed analysis of the system but not very accurate sizing. HOMER home page,

http://www.nrel.gov/international/tools/HOME R/homer.html It has been used extensively in previous

renewable energy system case studies Khan M., Iqbal M., "Pre-feasibility study of stand-alone hybrid energy

systems for applications in Newfoundland", Renew Energy, Vol. 30, issue 6, pp. 835–854, 2005.///////////Zoulias E.,
Lymberopoulos N., " Techno-economic analysis of the integration of hydrogen energy technologies in renewable energy based

stand-alone power systems", Renew Energy, Vol 32, issue 4, pp. 680–696, 2007. and in renewable energy
system validation tests. Shrestha G., Goel L., "A study on optimal sizing of stand-alone photovoltaic stations", IEEE
Trans., Energy Convers., Vol. 13, issue 4, pp. 373–378, 1998.

17
HOMER enables user to simulate PV/wind/genset hybrid systems under an hourly
simulation tool. HOMER performs sizing and optimization by automatically running
the simulation over and over, comparing different system configurations and
component sizes. Figure.2 shows HOMER screenshot. HOMER depends on the
approximate equations to derive the power supplied by renewable, PV and WT,
battery charging and discharging and the calculation of the total net present cost. The
disregard of the incidence of sunrays on PV module can be counted as a drawback.

Kamaruzzaman S. et. al. have applied the same approximate equation with a different
technique depends on genetic algorithm. Despite the time taken in getting the results
is identical and the results it selves are matched, Kamaruzzaman S. et. al. have
described another problem in HOMER program Kamaruzzaman S., Azami Z., Yusoff A. and Zulkifli M.
N., "Optimal Operational Strategy for Hybrid Renewable Energy System Using Genetic Algorithms" , WSEAS Transactions on

Mathematics, Vol.7, issue 4, April 2008, pp. 130-140.. It appears as the calculation of different types of
component needs to be calculated simultaneously. First, HOMER needs to calculate
every single combination of sizing and operation strategy. Second, the data for each
variation of component needs to be entered manually and run separately. As data
involved will be large and sensitivity analysis need to be done for selected component
it is unlikely HOMER can provide fast and reliable solution of the optimization
process.

2.4.2. HYBRID2
HYBRID2 was developed by the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory (RERL) of
the University of Massachusetts. It is hybrid system simulation software, the
simulation is very precise, as it can define time intervals from 10 min to 1 h. National

18
Renewable Energy Laboratory recommends optimizing the system with HOMER and
then, once the optimum system is obtained, improving the design using HYBRID2.

2.4.3. SOLSIM
SolSim enables the user to design, analyze and optimize stand alone, grid connected
and hybrid renewable energy systems. In SolSim solar energy includes photovoltaics,
biomass, biogas and wind energy. In order to be able to concentrate on the main
simulation input data, SolSim is kept user friendly and reliable. This was achieved by
integrating a graphic user interface including topic related help functions. This makes
the program easy to learn and to use. The large amount of data created from each
simulation run can be displayed in either hourly, daily, weekly or monthly interval.

2.4.4. Hybrid Designer

Hybrid Designer developed by the Energy and Development Research Center of Cape
Town University, South Africa, Hybrid Designer is a free sizing package for hybrid
renewable energy systems. Using genetic algorithm, the tool evaluates different
scenarios to determine the system configuration that will provide acceptable reliability
at the least life-cycle cost. During the simulation not every possible combination of
components will be taken into account, but guided by the genetic algorithm the final
solution is the one that reaches the design constraints placed on the system (e.g. unmet
load < 3%) on the one hand and achieves the lowest life cycle costs on the other.

2.4.5. PVSYST
PVSYST integrates pre-feasibility sizing and simulation support for PV and PV with
genset as backup. After having defined the location and loads, the user selects the
different components from a product database and the software automatically
calculates the size of each component. Since the genset is only considered as a
backup, the optimization routine may miss the system configuration having the true
lowest life-cycle cost. The user must consequently manually perform a sensitivity
analysis, using PVSYST as the simulation engine, to improve the life-cycle cost of the
system. At the pre-feasibility level, the Preliminary Design module of PVSYST
performs a quick and simple financial analysis based on the location and loads.Dave T.,
Michael R. and Farah S., "Photovoltaic Hybrid System Sizing and Simulation Tools: Status and Needs", PV Horizon: Workshop
on Photovoltaic Hybrid Systems, Montréal, Canada, Sep. 10, 2001.

19
2.4.6. Matlab / Simulink
Matlab, developed by The Mathworks in 1984 and subsequently upgraded several
times, is a technical computing environment offering advanced mathematical
manipulation tools with a powerful and intuitive scripting language. Coupled with
Simulink, a graphical modular simulation environment, it provides an easy to use
modeling and simulation tool. Multiple toolboxes are provided for optimization and
systems analysis in addition to data acquisition hardware that can be linked to the
simulation.

20
There are a number of software available from different companies. Some of the
programs and design tools are proprietary for companies. Table ,,, lists an overview of
Hybrid REN system simulation and design programs.

Table:,,,,, Overview of PV Simulation Programs

Program Type Stand- Grid- Façade Pump

alone connected
FWISO81 SIM √ √ × √
INSEL SYS √ √ × √
TRNSYS SYS √ √ √ ×
PHOTO SIM √ √ × ×
SOMES SIM √ √ × ×
ISEE DB × × × ×

Type of program: SIM Time step simulation

SYS Simulation system
DB Data bases

Façade Inhomogeneously irradiated PV surfaces

Pump PV pump systems

The power extracted from REN resources is given in terms of instantaneous efficiency
in all of the former programs. Anyway, proceeding by that way, the true performance
of REN system and, hence, the accurate optimum sizing is not able to be obtained,
because of occasional cloudiness, varying angle of incidence of sun rays and change
of wind speed and its distribution. Therefore, the estimation of long-term produced
power of REN system is essential in order to optimize its size and evaluate its
economics. A series of optimization techniques were done in order to take into
account all factors that can affect the power generated.

2.5. Meteorological Data Treatment for Optimum Sizing

Different methods were discussed to utilize the generated meteorological data as input
data for the optimum sizing simulation.

21
2.5.1. Time-Step Simulation

Generally, most of the researchers have used time-series meteorological data for
feasibility study and design of renewable energy hybrid systems. This method is the
most commonly used in optimal sizing routine. The behavior of hybrid system is
calculated based on the time-series meteorological input data, which usually have a
determination of one hour intervals. Borowy and Salameh [Borowy B. and Salameh Z.,

"Optimum photovoltaic array size for a hybrid wind/PV system", IEEE Trans., Energy Convers., Vol. 9, issue 3, pp. 482–

488, 1994.] developed an algorithm to optimize hybrid solar-wind system based on a

long-term hourly solar radiation and peak load demand data of the site chosen.

Time-step extremely effects the result of sizing optimization based on simulation

procedure. Notton et al. [Notton G., Muselli M., Poggi P. and Louche A., "Autonomous photovoltaic systems:
influences of some parameters on the sizing: simulation time-step, input and output power profile", Renew Energy, Vol.

7, issue 4, pp. 353-369, April 1996.], under conditions of the site of study, compared the behavior
of the system using 1-minute, hourly and daily analysis. It was observed that, the PV
module surface area calculated with the daily analysis is underestimated in relation to
the one obtained from 1-m analysis; on the other hand, using hourly data is
recommended.

Other researchers have depended on different steps for each wind and solar [Koutroulis
E., "Methodology for optimal sizing of stand-alone photovoltaic/wind-generator systems using genetic algorithms', Solar

Energy, Vol. 80, issue 9, pp.1072–1088, 2006.], whereas, an 1-h step is used for wind speed, on the
other hand, a daily irradiation on horizontal plane is chosen to expect the performance
of PV panels. The purpose of the proposed methodology is to suggest, among a list of
commercially available system devices, the optimal number and type of units ensuring
that the 20-year round total system cost is minimized subject to the constraint that the
load energy requirements are completely covered, resulting in zero load rejection.
This methodology can find the global optimum system configuration with relative
computational simplicity, but the configurations are sometimes not cost e¢¢ective,
because sometimes a tiny amount of load rejections are tolerable to the customers in
order to gain an acceptable system cost. it can be concluded that this optimization
method is it still have not found the best compromise point between system power
reliability and system cost.

22
The other phase of employing long term meteorological data is to extract the TMY
data in form of hourly weather data. This is used by many researchers [Zhang Q., Huang J.
and Lang S., "Development of typical year weather data for Chinese location", ASHRAE Trans, Vol. 108, No. 2, pp.

1063–1075, 2002.][Husamettin Bulut, "Generation of typical solar radiation data for Istanbul, Turkey", International

Journal of Energy Research, Vol. 27, pp. 847-855, 2003.][Yang H. and Lu L., "Study on typical meteorological years and

their effect on building energy and renewable energy simulations", ASHRAE Trans, Vol. 110, issue 2, pp. 424–431,

2004.].

Main disadvantage of the time-step simulation method is that it requires significant

computational effort. Furthermore, time-series environmental input data, especially
wind data, may not be available for many locations. To improve the performance of
hybrid system optimizations, many efforts have been conducted to decrease the
simulation time and/or reduce the number of variables used. However, the developed
technique of evolutionary algorithm (EA) allows researchers to exploit any number of
variables.

2.5.2. Monthly and annual average values

In many locations on earth only monthly or yearly average data is available. In order
to take the advantage of this data, a simplified design algorithms have been developed
to determine the long-term performance of solar energy systems, for photovoltaics
mostly. Some examples of simplified design algorithms for PVs could be seen in [Siegel
M.D., Klein S.A. and Beckman W.A., "A simplified method for estimating the monthly-average performance of PV

systems", Solar Energy, Vol. 26, pp. 413–418, 1981.] and [Clark D.R., Klein S.A. and Beckman W.A., "A method for
estimating the performance of PV systems", Solar Energy, Vol. 33, issue 6, pp. 551–555, 1984.]. The only
simplified design method for wind energy systems has been developed by Beyer and
Langer [Beyer G. and Langer C., "A method for the identification of configurations of PV/ Wind hybrid systems for
the reliable supply of small loads", Solar Energy, Vol. 57, No. 5, pp. 381-391, 1996], as part of a
photovoltaic/wind hybrid energy system design procedure.

Relying on monthly and annual average values leads to inaccurate optimal sizing, due
to the weather conditions are a continuous random variables. Hence, the probability
distribution is very appropriate to be applied on the average meteorological data input.
A probability distribution identifies either the probability of each value of a random
variable (in discrete variable), or the probability of the value falling within a particular
interval (in continuous variable).

23
 The Normal distribution, often called the "bell curve".

One of the most characteristic parameters defining the wind speed distribution for a
period of time is that of the Weibull wind speed distribution function. The Weibull
distribution function is a continuous probability distribution of two-parameter
function commonly used to fit wind speed frequency distribution in order to enable
the estimation of hybrid system performance [Justus C.G., Hargraves W.R. and Yalcin A.,

"Nationwide assessment of potential output from wind-powered generators", Journal of Applied Meteorology. Vol. 15, pp.

673-678, July 1976]. Hence the probability density function (PDF) is given by (2.8):,

k
k 1 v
k v c
f (v ) e ……………..…………….(2.8)
c c

c is the scale factor (m/s) and k is the unit-less shape factor. The Weibull distribution
function parameters can be either calculated analytically or gotten graphically for a
given data on a monthly basis.

Fig.5 Wind speed histogram and the matched Weibull probability

density function plot for a typical day in Dec. at 9:00 a.m.

24
Time-series wind data is fitted by Weibull distribution using the maximum likelihood
method as suggested by Stevens and Smulders [Stevens M.J. and Smulders P.T., "The estimation of
the parameters of the Weibull wind speed distribution for wind energy utilization purposes", Wind Engineering, vol. 3,

no. 2, p. 132-145, 1979.]. The shape factor k and the scale factor c are estimated using the
following two equations:

n n 1

i
v k ln vi
1 i i 1
ln vi
k n
……….…………….(2.9)
k
v n
i 1 i

n 1k
1
c vik ……………….……….…(2.10)
n i 1

where vi is the wind speed in time step i, and n is the number of nonzero wind speed
data points. Eqn. (2.9) must be solved using an iterative procedure (k = 2 is a suitable
initial guess), after which Eqn. (2.10) can be solved explicitly. Care must be taken to
apply Eqn. (2.9) only to the nonzero wind speed data points.

In the absence of any information about the distribution of wind speeds with only
annual or monthly averages may be available, the value of k must be estimated. The
value of k is usually between 1.5 and 3, depending on the variability of the wind.
Smaller k values correspond to more variable (more gusty) winds. A distribution
commonly used in wind engineering is the Rayleigh distribution. The Rayleigh
distribution is equivalent to a Weibull distribution with k=2, which corresponds to
moderately gusty winds. If no information about the variability of the wind is
available, a k value of 2 is often assumed. With the estimated value of k and the
average wind speed, the value of c can be obtained using Eq. (2.11).

1
v c 1 …………………….….…. Eq. (2.11).
k

where v is the average wind speed and ( ) being the gamma function[Seguro J.V. and
Lambert T.W., "Modern estimation of the parameters of the Weibull wind speed distribution for wind energy analysis",

Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 85, Issue 1, pp. 75-84, March 2000.].

the following example can be useful to clarify the Weibull application.

25
Example 2.1: Find the average power that the wind turbine can extract in a site of
annual average wind speed at a height of 10m over a flat terrain is 6 m/s.

Solution: According to Eqn. 2.8, and by substituting k = 2 (as previously mentioned),

the Weibull distribution function is given by

2
v
2v c
f (v ) e
c2 …………………………..…. (2.12)

According to Eqn. 2.11

v c 1.5 …………………….……….…. (2.13)

Using tables for the gamma function used in Eqn 2.13 gives

c 1.12v …………………….……….…. (2.14)

At this velocity, the scale factor from Eqn. 9.4 is

c 1.12 6 6.72 m / s ………………………..…. (2.15)

The power in the wind is

Pw 0.5 A v 3 (W) ………………………...…. (2.16)

Pw is the power contained in wind (Watts), is the air density ( 1.225 kg/m3 at
15°C and normal pressure), A is the rotor area (m2), and v is the wind velocity without
rotor interference, i.e., ideally at infinite distance from the rotor (m.s-1).

The average power in the wind under consideration of probability density function is
given by

Pavg Pw f (v) dv (W) …………………..….…. (2.17)

0

26
 Pavg 0.5 A v 3 f v dv ……………………….…. (2.18)
0

The use of Eqn. 2.12 in Eqn. 2.18 yields

2
v
2v 4 c
Pavg 0.5 A 2
e dv (W) ……………………... (2.19)
0
c

Introducing the change in variable x= (v/c) 2 in Eqn. 2.19

3
Pavg 0 .5 A c 3 1 (W) ……..…………….…. (2.20)
2

Dividing Eqn. 2.20 by area A, consulting the table of gamma functions, and
substituting the required values yield he following average power density:

Pavg A 0.5 1.225 6.72 3 1.3

……………….…. (2.21)
241.63 (W/m 2 )

According to previous, the power per unit of vertical area in air is 241.63 W/m2.

Celik [Celik A., "A simplified model for estimating the monthly performance of autonomous wind energy systems with
battery storage", Renew Energy, Vol. 28, issue 4, pp. 561-572, 2003.] develop a methodology enabling the
estimation of system performance by only using the monthly-average values of
Weibull wind speed distribution parameters, without needing a simulation program
and hour-by-hour long-term wind data. This methodology is restricted only to small-
scale wind energy systems with battery storage.

Protogeropoulos et al. [Protogeropoulos C., Brinkworth B. and Marshall R., "Sizing and techno-economical
optimization for hybrid solar PV–wind power systems with battery storage", International Journal of Energy Res., Vol.

21, issue 6, pp. 465-479, 1997.] applied process simpler than Celik one, whereas an annual
average monthly values of wind energy and solar energy are used.

Muselli et al. [Muselli M., Notton G. and Louche A., "Design of hybrid photo-voltaic power generator, with

optimization of energy management", Solar Energy, vol. 65, issue 3, pp. 143-157, 1999.] and Kaye [Kaye RJ., "New
approach to optimal sizing of components in stand-alone photovoltaic power systems", Proceedings of the 24th IEEE

photovoltaic specialists conference, Part 1 (of 2), Waikoloa, HI, USA, pp. 1192–1205,1994.] developed these

27
predictive algorithms further in the form of stochastic and dynamic optimization
models, incorporating uncertainties in demand, component failure and weather
behavior in the estimation of renewable energy system potentials.

2.5.3. Worst month in the year

Also many optimum sizing methods were developed based on the worst month
scenario [Egido M. and Lorenzo E., "The sizing of stand alone PV-systems: a review and a proposed new method",
Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells, Vol. 26, issue 1–2, pp. 51–69, 1992.]. Protogeropoulos et al. [Protogeropoulos
C., Brinkworth B. and Marshall R., "Sizing and techno-economical optimization for hybrid solar PV–wind power

systems with battery storage", Int J Energy Res., Vol. 21, issue 6, pp. 465-479, 1997.] present two sizing
methods for stand-alone hybrid wind-solar energy systems. The first method is the
yearly average monthly method, in which the size of PV panel and wind turbine is
derived from the yearly averaged monthly values. Similarly, the load is represented by
the yearly mean monthly value. The second method is termed the worst months
method, it choose the worst months for solar and wind energy system separately.

A similar sizing method, developed by Morgan [Morgan T., "The performance and optimisation of
autonomous renewable energy systems", Ph.D Thesis, University of Wales, Division of Mechanical Engineering and

Energy Studies, Cardiff; 1996.], is the worst month method. Contrary to worst months method,
this method chooses the worst month as the one in which the largest total area of PV
module and wind turbine occurs.

It is assumed in [Beyer G. and Langer C., "A method for the identification of configurations of PV/ Wind hybrid
systems for the reliable supply of small loads", Solar Energy, Vol. 57, No. 5, pp. 381-391, 1996.] that the
performance of systems with a low loss-of-load probability (LOLP) is governed by
the meteorological conditions of the worst month. Only a limited number of
meteorological parameters is required as input for a sizing procedure, characteristic
parameters of the wind and the irradiance conditions for the month with the lowest
irradiance and the months with the lowest average wind speed are needed. Based on
these parameters an analytical method may be used for a quick identification of the
respective system configurations.

It is shown that the worst month scenarios lead to too costly and, therefore, non-
optimal a system in terms of techno-economics [Celik A.N., "Techno-economic analysis of

autonomous PV-wind hybrid energy systems using different sizing methods", Energy Conversion and Management, Vol.

44, Issue 12, pp. 1951-1968, July 2003.]. Moreover, It is noted that the application of the worst

28
month approach will have to be abandoned as the performance renewable energy
systems is governed by seasonal more than monthly meteorological conditions.
Battery sizing is restricted to energy balance method leading to larger number of
batteries. Finally, it is hard do decide which month is the worst, in [Protogeropoulos C.,
Brinkworth B. and Marshall R., "Sizing and techno-economical optimization for hybrid solar PV–wind power systems

with battery storage", International Journal of Energy Res., Vol. 21, issue 6, pp. 465-479, 1997] two worst months
are chosen, worst month of solar energy and worst month for wind energy.

2.5.4. Time Frames

At first, in this methodology, each daily load curve, throughout the study period, is
divided into time slices, time slice interval could be one hour or more, and then each
corresponding slices are assembled together to create their time-frame and arranged in
a suitable manner to form the load duration curve (LDC) of their time-frame. The
same process of time-frames is applied to wind speed curve and solar irradiance
curve. Wind regime is then characterized by Weibull distributions, and solar
irradiance is characterized with a number of distributions smaller than those of wind
because of night times. The number of LDCs and distribution curves is governed by
the duration of time-frame. In [Karaki S. H., Chedid R. B., Ramadan R., " Probabilistic Performance

Assessment of Autonomous Solar-Wind Energy Conversion Systems", IEEE Transactions, Energy Conversion, Vol. 14,

No. 3, September 1999.], for a study period of one week and a 2-hour slice from each day
there would be 12 time-frames, 12 LDCs, 12 wind Weibull distribution curves and
just 6 solar irradiance distribution curves, each having a duration of 14 hours.

It is obvious in time-frame methodology the strong dependency between solar

irradiance and load is removed and time-load correlation is canceled. Moreover, the
determination of extra energy from a slice of a day, that it is important to be stored to
compensate the energy shortage at the next slice of the same day, is not conceivable.
The disappointing result of such a technique is due to the extremely high cost of
generated energy. For a load has a peak of 45 kW with energy expected not to be
supplied the minimum cost equals to 375× 103 $.

2.6. Optimum Sizing Approaches for Hybrid PV/WT System

The efficient and economic utilize of REN resources requires an optimum sizing
method to achieve it. The optimum sizing method can help to guarantee the lowest

29
investment with full use of the system component, so that the hybrid system can work
at the optimum conditions in terms of investment and system power reliability
requirement. The resulting energy production in REN system is highly influenced by
the intermittent of solar radiation and wind speed characteristics. Therefore, power
reliability analysis has been considered as an important step in any hybrid system
designing process. A reliable electrical power system means a system has sufficient
power to feed the load demand during a certain period.

The literature on this subject is very wide but limited. From the references studied, it
is a fact that photovoltaic-wind hybrid systems are the most frequently analyzed.

A variety of optimization techniques for hybrid solar–wind power generation system

have been dedicated, since the popular utilization of photovoltaic modules and wind
turbines in the 1980s, to achieve the technical and economical size according to the
system reliability requirements. However, hybrid REN system sizing methods can be
categorized under two main branches; the first branch embraces methods seek the
Balance of Energy (BOE) of the system over a certain period, on the other hand, the
other group contains techniques request the Reliability of Supply (ROS).

2.6.1. Balance of Energy

An important part of Hybrid REN system design is concerned with the balance
between energy produced, by both WTs and PVs, and energy consumed by the load.
Any short-term mismatch between these two energy flows is compensated by energy
storage, usually in the form of a rechargeable battery. Other types of storage -for
example, water pumped into a tank - may also be encountered in certain applications.
Considerations of energy balance cover a number of characteristic time scales, and
can be discussed in terms of the energy stored in the battery (in other words, the
battery state of charge SOC), shown schematically in Fig. 1.

30
Figure. 1. A schematic of the characteristic times scales of energy balance in stand-alone systems, as indicated by the
energy stored in the battery. (a) the daily and climatic cycles, (b) the seasonal cycle.

The energy balance displays various cycles which occur with different degree of
regularity [Markvart, T., "Solar Electricity (2nd edition)", John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, Section 4.4.2, Ed.

2000.]. In the daily cycle, the battery is charged during the day and discharged by the
night-time load, or indeed at any time when the energy consumption exceeds supply.
The depth of discharge (DOD) in the daily cycle varies from application to
application but, for systems without a back-up generator, it is always fairly shallow.

The daily energy balance between PV energy supply and a typical domestic load is
illustrated in Figure 2 on the example of a PV system operating in Sacramento, USA.
Figures 2(a) and (b) show the ambient temperature and solar radiation data for a
typical day of the year, with PV array at latitude tilt. These data have been generated
statistically by the METEONORM software [METEONORM version 6.1, Meteotest, Switzerland,

http://www.meteonorm.com.].

31
Fig. 2. (a) The hourly temperature profile and (b) solar radiation for a typical day in a year in Sacramento, USA. (c) A
typical hourly load profile. (d) The hourly energy balance. (e) The cumulative energy balance.

Figure 2(c) shows the profile of energy consumption in a typical household, obtained
as described in the IEEE standard [IEEE standard 1013-2000: IEEE Recommended practice for sizing
lead-acid batteries for Photovoltaic Systems, IEEE.]. If the array size or wind wind generator is
chosen so that the total energy produced by the array is equal to the energy consumed
by the load, the resulting hourly energy balance (energy produced minus energy
consumed) is shown in Figure 2(d). The cumulative energy balance (integral of (d)
from 0 to time t) is shown in Figure 2(e).

32
This result shows that, although there is complete energy balance at the end of the
day, there is considerable imbalance between the energy supply and the load for a
number of hours during the day when the load consumes more energy than supplied
by the PV generator. If this situation is encountered in a stand-alone system this
mismatch has to be supplied by energy storage or a back-up generator.

The different techniques, which are described here, include general energy balance,
utilizability method, amp-hour (AH) method, linear programming method, and non-
linear programming.

2.6.2. Reliability of Supply

The reliability of electricity supply is an important factor in PV system design, and
this is also reflected in some sizing procedures. One way to quantify the reliability of
supply is by a parameter known as the Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP),
defined as the probability that an insu¢¢ cient power supply results when the hybrid
system (PV array, wind power and storage system) is unable to satisfy the load
demand [Abouzahr I. and Ramakumar R., "Loss of power supply probability of stand-alone photovoltaic systems: a
closed form solution approach", IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. EC-6, pp. 1-1, 1991] [Yang H.X., Lu L.,

and Zhou W., "A novel optimization sizing model for hybrid solar-wind power generation system", Solar Energy, Vol.

81, Issue 1, Pages 76-84, January 2007.]. The other way is the Energy Index of Reliability (EIR).

The LPSP technique is considered to be the technical implemented criteria for sizing
and evaluating a hybrid PV-wind system employing a storage system. A LPSP of 0
means the generated power always greater or equal to power demand; and the LPSP
of 1 means the power deficit is persist all the time duration.

The objective function of the LPSP from time 0 to T can be described by:

T
t 0
Power failure time ( Psup plied ( t ) Pneeded ( t ) )
LPSP
T

Where T is the number of time intervals.

The power failure time is defined as the time that the load is not satisfied when the
power generated by both the wind turbine and the PV array is insufficient and the
storage is depleted (battery SOC falls below the allowed value SOCmin = 1 - DOD and
still has not recovered to the reconnection point) [Yang H., Zhou W., Lu L. and Fang Z., "Optimal

33
sizing method for stand-alone hybrid solar–wind system with LPSP technology by using genetic algorithm", Solar

Energy, Vol. 82, issue 4, pp. 354-367, 2008].

The recommended values of LPSP for various applications are shown in Table 2
[Lorenzo E., "Solar Electricity: Engineering of Photovoltaic Systems", Progensa, Seville, 1994.].

Application Recommended LPSP

Domestic
Illumination 10-2
Appliances 10-1
Telecommunications 10-4

Energy index reliability (EIR) is defined as:

EENS
EIR 1
Eo

Where Eo is the energy demand of the system over the period under consideration,
and EENS is the expected energy not supplied to a load by the Hybrid REN system.

It is obvious that the EIR is the antonym of LPSP. The EIR of 1 means the load will
be always satisfied; and the EIR of 0 means the load will never be satisfied. For a
given load duration curve over a period of repetition, the expected energy not supplied
to the load by the hybrid system clearly depends on the size of the battery as shown in
Figure 12.

Fig. 12 Effect of battery size on load availability for given load duration curve.

The black area represents Ei which is defined as the energy not supplied during time i,
therefore, EENS is given as:

34
 n
EENS Ei
i 1

This model is used in probabilistic model of Hybrid REN system. The results of such
probabilistic study[Abdin E. S., Asheiba A. M. and Khatee M. M., "Modeling and optimum controllers design for
a stand-alone photovoltaic-diesel generating unit", IEEE Paper No. PE-1150-0-2, 1998.][karaki. Sep. 1999][ Karaki S.

H., Chedid R. B., and Ramadan R. , "Probabilistic Performance Assesment of Wind Energy Conversion Systems", IEEE

Trans., Energy Conversion, Vol. 14, No. 2, June 1999.] are shown in Figure 13, which indicates the
following:

• the higher the number of WTs or PVs, the higher the EIR.
• the larger the battery size, the higher the EIR.
• the higher the requirement on EIR, the higher the number of required towers
and batteries increasing the capital cost of the project.

Setting unnecessarily high EIR requirement can make the project uneconomical. For
that reason, the Energy Index of Reliability must be set after a careful optimization of
the cost and the consequences of not meeting the load requirement during some
portion of the time period.

Fig. 13 Relative capital cost versus EIR with different numbers of

wind turbines and battery sizes

Some other power reliability criteria also exist, such as the Loss-of-Load Probability
(LOLP) [Hoque A. and Ahsan Q. " Wind and solar generating units: Potential candidates for a generation mix of an
isolated area", Solar Energy, Vol. 55, Issue 5, pp. 395-404, November 1995.], which is defined as the ratio
between the estimated energy deficit and the energy demand over the total operation

35
time of the installation. Other names for the same concept have also been used: Load
Coverage Rate (LCR) [Emanuele N., "On PV simulation tools and sizing techniques: a comparative analysis
towards a reference procedure", Proc. 13th European PV Solar Energy Conf., Nice, pp. 687-690, 1995.], or Loss of
Power Probability (LOPP) [Cowan W., "A performance test and prediction method for stand-alone/battery
systems- looking for quality assurance", Proc. 12th European Solar Energy Conf., Amsterdam, pp. 403-407, 1994.].

More and more reliability functions, System Performance Level (SPL) and Loss of
Load Hours (LOLH). Al-Ashwal and Moghram [Al-Ashwal A. and Moghram I., "Proportion

assessment of combined PV–wind generating systems", Renew Energy, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 43-551, 1997.] presented a
method for assessment on the basis of the Loss of Load Risk (LOLR) to decide an
optimum proportion for the solar and wind energy in a hybrid system. The SPL is
defined as the probability that the load cannot be satisfied [ Maghraby H., Shwehdi M. and Al-
Bassam G., "Probabilistic assessment of photovoltaic (PV) generation systems", IEEE Trans., Power Sys., Vol. 17, issue 1,

pp. 205-208, 2002.]. Both the SPL and the LOLH methods are also widely used [Shrestha G.
and Goel L., "A study on optimal sizing of stand-alone photovoltaic stations", IEEE Trans., Energy Convers., Vol. 13,

issue 4, 1998.].

2.6.3. Optimal Sizing Techniques Based on Energy Balance

2.6.3.1. Balance of Energy method:

In fact, the basic tenet in sizing the stand-alone power system is to remember that it is
really the stand-alone energy system. It must, therefore, maintain the energy balance
over the specified period. The energy drained during lean times must be made up by
the positive balance during the remaining time of the period. A simple case of a
constant load on the PV system using solar arrays perfectly pointing toward the sun
normally for 10 hours of the day is shown in Fig. 12. to illustrate the point.

36
 Fig. 12 Energy balance analysis over one load cycl

The solar array is sized such that the two shaded areas on two sides of the load line
must be equal. That is, the area [oagd] must be equal to the area [gefb]. The system
losses in the round trip energy transfers, e.g., from and to the battery, adjust the
available load to a lower value as shown by the dotted line[Mukund R. Patel, " Wind and Solar
Power Systems", CRC Press, CH.12 Stand alone systems, 1999].

In general, the stand-alone system must be sized so as to satisfy the following energy
balance equation over one period of repetition.

6 p.m.

( Solar radiation conversion efficiency) dt

8 a.m.
6 p.m.

( load losses charge power ) dt

8 a.m.
8 a.m.

(loads losses) dt
6 p.m.

Or, in discrete time intervals of constant load and source power:

6 p.m.
( Solar radiation conversion efficiency) t
8 a.m.
6 p.m. 8 a.m.
(load losses charge power ) t (load losses ) t
8 a.m. 6 p.m.

Wind turbines is sized similarly to the PVs. The wind energy is able to be estimated
either by applying one of the methods described in section 2.5.

Energy balance method is further explained in [Markvart T. and Castaner L., "Practical handbook of
photovoltaics: fundamentals and applications", Elsevier, 2003].

2.6.3.2. Utilizability method:

An old approach to estimate the long-term thermal performance of flat-plate

collectors provides an estimate of monthly average performance of the collectors with
minimal calculation effort. This method is called "Utilizability" or " -curve" method.
The utilizability ( ), is defined as the fraction of insolation incident on a surface of a
collector that is above a given threshold value. This method has successfully been

37
applied to photovoltaic systems [Klein S.A. and Beckman W.A., "Review of solar radiation utilizability",
Solar Energy Eng. Vol. 106, issue 4, 1984, pp. 393–402. ]. It was pioneered by Hottel and Whillier
[Hottel H. C. and Whillier W., ‘Evaluation of flat plate solar collector performance’, Transactions of the Conference on
the use of Solar Energy Thermal Processes: The Scientific Basis, II, part 1, Section A, 1955, pp 74-104]. According
to them, the utilizability concept follows equation relates to rate of useful energy
collection, qw, to the design of the parameters of the collector and its operation
conditions is given as:

qw AFR I T U L (Ti Ta ) ………………………….(1)

Where
qw = the instantaneous steady-state useful energy delivered in watts by a solar flat-
plate collector of surface area A.
FR = heat removal factor and is a measure of the solar collector performance as a
heat exchanger, since it can be interpreted as the ratio of actual heat transfer to the
maximum possible heat;
= is the optical efficiency, or the product of the transmittance and absorptance
of the cover and absorber of the collector;
UL= is the overall heat loss coefficient of the collector. It is dependent on collector
design only and is normally expressed in W/(m2 ◦ C);
Ti = the fluid inlet temperature to the collector (◦ C); and
IT = the radiation intensity on the plane of the collector (W/m2).
Ta = ambient temperature.

The superscript + is used to indicate that only positive values of the quantity in
brackets are considered. In Eqn. 1, to predict long-term collector performance at a
pre-specified and constant fluid inlet temperature Ti merely by assuming average
hourly values of IT and Ta.

Such a procedure would be erroneous and lead to underestimation of collector output

because of the presence of the control function, which implies that collectors are
turned on only when qw>0, that is, when radiation IT exceeds a certain critical value Ic.
This critical radiation value is found by setting qw in Eqn. 1 to zero:

Ic U L (Ti Ta ) / …………….………..……….(2)
Then the Eqn.1 can be written in terms of Ic as

38
 qw AFR [ I T I c ] ……………………..……… (3)
The critical solar radiation intensity level Ic represents the radiation required to
maintain the collector plate at the fluid inlet temperature i.e. the minimum intensity
necessary to produce a net energy output. IT is the instantaneous solar radiation over
time period [Garg H. P. and Garg & Prakash, "Solar energy: fundamentals and applications", Tata McGraw-Hill,
2000, pp 60-75.].

Klein has further simplified the method by using monthly average daily utilizability
( -charts) rather than the original hourly curves, resulting in less computational
efforts. The over-bars denote monthly means[Klein S. A., "Calculation of flat-plate collector loss

coefficients", Solar Energy, Vol. 17, Issue 1, April 1975, Pages 79-80.]. The excess energy provided by
solar system for an installation having a constant load was evaluated. It is evident the
dependency of utilizability method on the solar radiation statistic, and the necessary
calculations had to be done for hourly intervals about solar noon each month. An
advantage of utilizability method that the long-term performance can be calculated by
a simple hand calculator and year-to-year weather fluctuations are automatically
averaged.

The total useful energy collected over N days (= 30 for monthly, =365 for yearly)
during individual hour i of the day is:
N
[ I Ti Ic ]
Qw AFR I Ti ……………….………… (4)
i 1 I Ti
By defining Xi as the radiation ratio and Xc as the critical radiation ratio :
Xi I Ti / I Ti ………………………………… (5)

Xc I c / I Ti ………………………………… (6)
The Eqn. 3 can be written as
Qw AFR I Ti N i ( X c ) …………………………… (7)

i is the individual hourly utilizability factor

N
1
i (X c ) Xi Xc …………………..……… (8)
N i 1

The utilizability factor i is thus a radiation statistic in the sense that it depends solely
on the radiation values at the specific location. As such, it is in no way dependent on
the solar collector itself. Only after the radiation statistics have been applied is a

39
collector dependent significance attached to Xc. Ic is evaluated from Eqn.2, then Xi and
Xc are calculated from Eqn.5 and Eqn.6, respectively, for each individual piece of
time i. After that i is found from the curves shown in Fig. 45, with respect to the

clearness index K .Consequently, the amount of energy Qw is obtained.

Liu and Jordan have generalized utilizability method for any time of year and
geographic location [Liu B.Y.H. and Jordan R.C., "The Long-Term Average Performance of Flat-Plate Solar-
Energy Collectors: Withy Design Data for the U.S., its Outlying Possessions and Canada", Solar Energy, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.

53 – 74, 1963]. The generalized utilization, generated from daily data, gave the ability to
calculate utilizability curves for any location and tilt, by knowing only the clearness
index (see Fig. 45) [Gordon J.M., Govaer D. and Zarmi Y., " The utilizability method with hourly vs daily
insolation data", Solar Energy, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp 99-102, 1981.]. The key climatic parameter which
permits generalization is the monthly clearness index K of the location defined as
K H / H o ………………………..………… (9)

H is the monthly mean daily global radiation on the horizontal surface and H o is the
monthly mean daily extraterrestrial radiation on a horizontal surface.

40
 Fig. 45 Generalized hourly utilizability curves of Liu and Jordan for two different
monthly mean clearness indices (a) K 0.3, (b) K 0.5 .

The utilizability dependence on the distribution of solar radiation impedes the

assumption of applying the mean value of IT in order to predict the mean value of qw.
This can be illustrated by the following simple concept. By consideration a three
identical days sequences shown in sequence A of Fig. 43. If Ic1 is the critical radiation
intensity and if it is constant over the whole day, the useful energy collected by the
collector is represented by the sum of the shaded areas. If a higher critical radiation
value shown as Ic2 in Fig. 43 is selected, no useful energy is collected at all. Actual
weather sequences would not look like that in sequence A but rather like that in
sequence B of a clear, an overcast, and an average day[Klein S.A., "Calculation of Flat-Plate

Collector Utilisability", Solar Energy, Vol. 21, No. 5, 1978, pp. 393 – 402.].

Ic2
Ic1 Sequence A
Radiation W/m2

Ic2
Ic1 Sequence B

Day 1 Day 2 Day3

Fig. 43 Effect of radiation distribution on
collector long-term performance.

41
However, the daily utilizability for critical level Ic1 (i.e. the ratio of the shaded area to
the total under the curves) is greater for sequence B than for sequence A. the effect of
radiation distribution becomes more pronounced at higher critical levels. For example,
the utilizability corresponding to critical level Ic2 is zero for sequence A but
significantly greater than zero for sequence B. Thus, neglecting the variation of
radiation intensity from day-to-day over the long term and dealing with mean values
would result in an underestimation of collector performance.

Fig. 44 shows a passively heated direct gain house, it uses the natural movement of
heat and air to maintain comfortable temperatures, the curves in Fig. 43 represent the
energy transmitted through the window and the critical level represents the building
losses. The transmitted solar radiation below the critical level can be used to offset
these building losses. The energy above the critical level is in excess of the load. It is
potentially "unutilizable" and must either be dumped by ventilation or drawing a
shade, or stored for later use by increasing the temperature of the building mass.

Fig. 44 passive heat direct gain house

For a photovoltaic power system, Fig. 43 represents the output of the cells and the
critical level represents the electrical load on the system. The energy below the critical
level can be used to meet the load. The energy above the critical level must either be
stored in a battery, dissipated in a resistor, or sold to a utility. In these three examples,
the critical level was considered constant. This is not the usual operating condition for
these solar systems. In fact, in the more usual case the critical level is not constant.

Applying utilizability method over PV modules were done by Siegel et al. The
monthly average output, the excess of energy and the storage capacity of the batteries

42
were evaluated [Siegel M.D., Klein S.A. and Beckman W.A., "A Simplified Method for Estimating the Monthly-
Average of Photovoltaic System", Solar Energy, Vol. 26, No. 5, pp. 413 – 418, 1981.].

Karatasou et al. [Karatasou S., Santamouris M. and Geros V., " On the calculation of solar utilizability for south
oriented flat plate collectors tilted to an angle equal to the local latitude", Solar Energy, Vol. 80, No. 12, pp. 1600–1610,

Dec. 2006.] developed Lui and Jordan equations using only a minimum of information. It
was aimed to estimate both, monthly average hourly and daily utilizability. An
equations were proposed to give results at good agreement with computer simulation
program results, and in some cases, slightly better from the other compared methods.

The main disadvantage of the utilizability method developed by Liu and Jordan is that
the calculations cannot be completely automated on a computer because many graphs
have to be used in between the calculations and detailed hourly radiation data of a
place is required. This method uses monthly average hourly radiation and temperature
data for a number years sufficient to obtain a good statistical average. However, All
previous mentioned studies are based on the energy balance of the systems studied to
determine their storage capacity and output by estimating the excess of energy
provided by the collectors using the utilizability depending on hourly utilization
curves. Utilizability method is restricted only for solar systems and cannot be utilized
for wind farms or hybrid systems.

2.6.3.3. Ampere-Hour (AH) method:

It is the most straightforward method to size PV-battery-diesel hybrid systems. This

method is detailed in a handbook of PV design practices by Sandia [Sandia National

Laboratories, Photovoltaic Design Assistance Center, New Mexico Solar Energy Institute, "Stand-alone photovoltaic
systems: a handbook of recommended design practices", Sandia National Laboratories, SAND87-7023, Albuquerque,

NM 87185-0753, printed April 1988.].

Storage capacity is normally determined by the number of autonomous days (NAD),

which is implies the number of continuous days that storage system can only cover
the load demand. NAD is arbitrary selected by the designer (typically 3-7 days). The
size of storage capacity is selected to cover peak demand as long as NAD is persist
[Bhuiyan, M. and Asgar, M., "Sizing of a stand-alone photovoltaic power system at Dhaka", Renewable Energy, Vol. 28,
pp. 929-938, 2003.].

43
This conventional design method gives a conservative design with oversized
components. Also, it does not take into account the relationship between the output of
PV modules and storage capacity. Unless the very accurate data is used to select the
value for autonomous days, this can easily lead to the specification of oversized
components and a suboptimal result. It is used by [Buping, J., Ming, L., and Zhegen, C., "Small-
scale solar PV generating systems – the household electricity supply used in remote areas"”, Renewable Energy, Vol. 6,

No. 501-505, 1995.], and [Khan, M. Rezwan and Khan, M. Fayyaz, "Design considerations for solar PV home systems
nd
in Bangladesh", 2 international conference on electrical and computer engineering, ICECE 2002, Dhaka, Bangladesh,

26-28 December 2002.] to size stand-alone PV systems.

Example 2.2: Suppose a house of 600 Watt per hour in average, find the suitable size
of PV panels to feed this load. And the appropriate size of WT if the annual average
wind speed at a height of 10m over a flat terrain is 6 m/s.

Solution:

PV panel sizing:

Over the course of 24 hours, the required power is

P = 600×24 = 14400 Wh/day

For an predefined weather conditions a specific solar panel can generate 70 mW/in2.
If the average of sun hours in the day was 5 hours, then the total energy generated
from the module within this day is

Ppv= 70 × 5 = 350 mWh/in2/day

Therefore, the required size of PV panel for the house is

PV size= 14400/(350/1000)=41000 in2 ≈ 26 m2

The capacity of batteries is calculated by picking a number of autonomous days,

suppose it is 4 days, then the power required for this period equals to 14400×4 =
57600 Wh. The number of batteries is calculated by dividing the required capacity i.e.
57600 Wh over the single battery capacity.

WT sizing:

44
According to Example 2.1 in section 2.5.2. the average power density for v=6 m/s:

Pavg A 241.63 (W/m 2 ) ……………….…. (2.21)

Many types of wind turbines available in market, choosing a 2kW turbine with blades
length 1.7 m can be useful.

2.6.3.4. Linear Programming

Linear Programming is well-known tool and has been used in several publications to
size hybrid energy systems. It was graphically applied by Markvart [Markvart T., "Sizing of
hybrid PV–wind energy systems", Solar Energy, Vol. 57, issue 4, pp. 277-281, 1996.] to optimally design a
hybrid solar–wind power generation system by considering the monthly-average solar
and wind energy values. This paper gives a very good explanation and insights into
how LP can be used to determine PV and wind turbine size in a PV/wind energy
hybrid system.

For an average daily demand d as a function of the time in the year is known, it is then
readily write down the condition that the daily energy supply satisfies the demand:

d N w Pw N s Ps …………..………..………..(1)

Nw and Pw are the number of wind turbines and wind power in kW, respectively.
Ns and Ps are the number of PV modules and solar power in kW, respectively.

Condition (1) is modified to the next equation:

Ps d
Nw Ns ...…………..…………..…(2)
Pw Pw

Eqn. (2) represents a straight line equation able to be displayed in a convenient

graphical form using the sizes of the PV and wind components as coordinates in a
Cartesian plane. It is shown that the systems that satisfy condition (1) fill a region in
this plane shown in Fig. 2.

45
 Fig. 2. The range of hybrid PV/wind energy systems that satisfy the load (eqn (1)).

The simple formalism based on condition (1) can be used to develop a realistic sizing
procedure for the hybrid generator. Applying condition (1) over all months leads to
twelve conditions of the form (1) with different values of Pw, Ps and d which
correspond to:

di N wi Pwi N si Psi i 1 : 12 ……………..(3)

di: average energy demand for month i,

Pwi: monthly means of average daily wind energy for month i,
Pwi: monthly means of average daily solar energy for month i,

supply-demand lines are plotted in Fig. 3. The envelope of these lines will coincide
with the locus of their intersections. The resulting curve is called "the sizing curve".

Fig. 3. The monthly analysis of the hybrid generator, described by condition (3).

46
The final task now is to find the optimum hybrid system according to the economical
function. As cost function can be assumed to be a linear function of Nw and Ns, the
condition for an optimum system is
C Ns Nw C0 ……………..…….………..(4)
minimum

Where C is the capital cost of the hybrid system; , are the cost of a PV module
and wind turbine, respectively; C0 is the total costs including the cost of design and
installation etc. Minization of Eqn. (4) guides to Eqn. (5):

Ns
………..……………..………..(5)
Nw

Eqn. (5) figure out that the combination of generators with the minimum cost depends
only on the ratio of the unit costs of WT and PV array, and can be represented by a
point on the sizing curve where the slope of its tangent is equal to this ratio.

This argument is similar to the reasoning used in the sizing of a PV array and a
battery[Gordon J. M., "Optimal sizing of stand-alone photovoltaic solar power systems", Solar Cells, Vol. 20, issue 4,
pp. 295-313, May 1987.]. LP is also used in [Saengthong, S. and Premrudeepreechacharn, S., "A simple method
in sizing related to the reliability supply of small stand-alone photovoltaic systems", in Proc. Photovoltaic Specialists

Conference, Conference Record of the Twenty-Eight IEEE, pp. 1630-1633, 15-22 September 2000.] to size PV-
battery systems, considering reliability of supply. The reliability index used is defined
as the ratio of total energy deficit to total energy load. Other LP applications have
been shown in [Iniyan S. and Sumathy K., "An optimal renewable energy model for various end-uses", Energy,
Vol. 25, No. 563-575, 2000.] and [Iniyan S. and Sumathy K., "The application of a Delphi technique in the linear
programming optimization of future renewable energy options for India”, Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 24, pp. 39-50,

2003.].

2.6.3.5. Non-linear optimization

In [Seeling-Hochmuth G., "Optimisation of PV-hybrid energy system design and system operation control using genetic
algorithms", in Proc. 13th European Photovoltaic Conference in Nice, 1995.] and [Seeling-Hochmuth, G., "A

combined optimization concept for the design and operation strategy of hybrid-PV energy systems", Solar Energy, Vol.

61, No. 2, pp. 77-87, August 1997.], non-linear programming has been developed. The design
and operation control problem is non-linear due to non-linear component
characteristic and the complexity of the problem. The diesel power output and the

47
length of its running time is non-linearly related to fuel consumption, in addition to
the non-linearity of characteristic inverter curves. It is supposed that the minimizing
operation costs and unsatisfied demand are achieved not only by selecting an
appropriate system configuration, but also by finding a suitable operation strategy and
suitable settings for it, taking account of the special operational requirements. The
operating strategy adopted in handling the hybrid system combined with the sizing
choice affects system performance as well as degradation and ageing of components.

2.6.4. Optimal Sizing Techniques Based on Reliability of Supply

2.6.4.1. Analytical Method of LPSP

In [Abouzahr I. and Ramakumar R., "Loss of power supply probability of stand-alone photovoltaic systems: a closed
form solution approach", IEEE Transaction on Energy Conversion, Vol. 6, No. 1, March 1991.] and [Abouzahr I. and
Ramakumar R., "Loss of power supply probability of stand-alone wind electric conversion systems: a closed form

solution approach", IEEE Transaction on Energy Conversion, Vol. 5, No. 3, September 1990], a closed form
solution approach to the evaluation of LPSP of stand-alone photovoltaic systems with
energy storage, as well as stand-alone wind electric conversion systems, is presented.
The authors define LPSP as the probability of encountering the state of energy stored
in battery falling below a certain minimum value specified. However, instead of using
long-term historical data to determine LPSP, the LPSP is determined by integrating
the probability density function of power input to the storage. The analytical
technique thus involves less data manipulation.

Although the LPSP technique is useful and it is proven to work well in hybrid
PV/wind/battery systems, this approach can be very complicated when dealing with
hybrid energy systems that have other fossil fuel resources. This is due to the fact that
this technique requires modeling of probability distribution of those resources. Unlike
those for solar and wind energy which can be modeled using Weibull distribution or
Beta distribution, the probability density function of fossil fuel resources cannot be
modeled since the engine can be controlled manually.

In addition to the above publications, there are several other publications that analyze
and estimate reliability of a stand-alone PV system, using loss of load probability
(LOLP). These publications include [Hoque A. and Wahid K.A., "Reliability analysis of a photovoltaic
generator model", Journal of Electrical Engineering, The Institute of Engineering, Bangladesh, Vol. EE 28, No. 1, June

2000.], [Klein S. A. and Beckman W.A., "Loss-of-load probabilities for stand-alone photovoltaic systems", Solar

48
Energy, Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 499-512, 1987.], and [El-Maghraby M. H., Abed Y.A. and El-Sayes M.A., "Proposed
generalized models for estimating the reliability of a stand-alone solar photovoltaic power system", Electric Power

Systems Research, Vol. 8, pp. 111-118, 1984/85.].

2.6.4.2. Probability Method of LPSP

The concept of loss of power supply probability (LPSP) has been introduced by [ Ofry
E. and Braunstein A., "The loss of power supply probability as a technique for designing stand-alone solar electrical

photovoltaic systems", IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-102, No. 5, May 1983.] to
design stand-alone solar PV systems. This technique enables the determination of the
minimum sizes of hybrid REN system components, and yet assures a reliable power
supply to the load. The reliability of power supply is measured by the total number of
hours per year for which the power demand of consumer is larger than hybrid REN
system supply. The study is performed during a period of one year to collect the state
of charge (SOC) of battery as a function of time. The cumulative distribution function
of the battery SOC is derived. The LPSP is then determined by calculating the value
[1-(cumulative proportion of the time where battery SOC is higher than the SOCmin)].

Abd El Aziz et.al. [Fadia M.G. Abd El Aziz M.M. and Fathy A.S., "Simulation and analysis of hybrid systems
using probabilistic techniques”, in Proc. of the Power Conversion Conference, Vol. 2, 3-6 August, Nagaoka, 1997.] then
adopts this concept to find the optimum size of battery storage coupled with a hybrid
PV-wind autonomous system. Long-term data of wind speed and insolation recorded
for every hour of the day are deduced to produce the probability density function of
combined generation. For the load distribution being considered, the probability
density function of the storage is obtained. Finally, the battery size is calculated to
give the relevant level of the system reliability using the LPSP technique.

2.6.4.3. Graphic Construction with LPSP

A graphical construction technique for figuring the optimum combination of PV array

and battery for a stand-alone hybrid solar–wind system has been presented by Borowy
and Salameh [Borowy B. and Salameh Z., "Methodology for optimally sizing the combination of a battery bank and
PV array in a wind/PV hybrid system", IEEE Trans, Energy Convers., Vol. 11, issue 2, pp. 367-373, 1996.] based on
using long-term data of solar radiation and wind speed recorded for every hour of the
day for 30 years. However, the mathematical models used for determining the
operating situations of a hybrid system need to be further improved as noticed in [Ai B.,

49
Yang H., Shen H. and Liao X., "Computer-aided design of PV/wind hybrid system", Renewable Energy, Vol. 28, Issue 10,

pp. 1491-1512, August 2003.].

For a given load and a desired LPSP, the optimum configuration or number of
batteries and PV modules was calculated based on the minimum cost of the system.
Cost function of the system is defined as follows:
C N PV N bat C0
Where C is the capital cost of the hybrid system; , are the cost of a PV module
and battery, respectively; C0 is the total costs including the cost of design and
installation etc.

Borowy and Salameh [Borowy B. and Salameh] assumed that the total cost of the system is
linearly related to both the number of PV modules and the number of batteries. The
minimum cost will be at the point of tangency of the curve that represents the
relationship between the number of PV modules and the number of batteries.
Therefore, the condition to obtain the optimum solution of this equation:
N PV
N bat

The solution of this equation is graphically illustrated in next figure. The inclination
of the line equal to ( ) is equal to the curve in point S. then the optimal sizing
of the battery bank and the PV array can be achieved.

Fig. Plot of number of PV modules versus number of batteries for a given LPSP

However, in both graphical methods, only two parameters (either PV and battery, or
PV and wind turbine) were included in the optimization process, some important

50
factors, such as the PV module slope angle and the wind turbine installation height,
were completely neglected.

Anyway, the assumption of a certain value of wind turbines number, shows the
availability of introducing WT in the economical formula. This modification were
used by Daming X. et. al. [Daming X., Longyun K., and Binggang C., "Graph-Based Ant System for Optimal
Sizing of Standalone Hybrid Wind/PV Power Systems", Computational Intelligence, Lecture Notes in Computer Science,

Vol. 4114, Part II, pp. 1136-1146, August 2006.].

2.6.4.4. Trade-off Method

Trade-off method is a compromise between cost and reliability. It is introduced by

[Gavanidou E.S. and Bakirtzis A.G., "Design of a stand-alone system with renewable energy sources using trade-off
method", IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol.7, No.1, March 1992] and [Gavanidou E.S., Bakirtzis A.G.,
Dokopoulos P.S. and Pantousas D.A., "Design of a stand-alone system with renewable energy sources", in Proc. at the

IEEE/NTUA Athens Power Tech Conference, Greece, 5-8 September 1993.] for multi-objective planning
under uncertainty. Hybrid RENs uncertainties are load demand, wind and solar source
availability (availability refers to take into account failure frequency (occurrences /
year) and average repair time (hours)). The idea is intended for use in the design of
stand-alone systems with renewable energy sources. This is done by first developing a
database that contains all possible combinations of PV plant, wind generator, and
battery, given ranges and steps of component sizes. Next, all possible plans are
simulated over all possible futures, i.e. a tolerance of ±1m/s around the average value
of wind velocity, and ±10% variation in the global solar insolation. The authors then
create a trade-off curve by plotting investment cost and loss of load probability
(LOLP) for all possible scenarios, eliminating options with LOLP greater than 10%.
Robust plans are then identified by the frequency of occurrence of discrete option
values in the conditional decision sets. This method yields a small set of robust
designs that are expected to work well under most foreseeable conditions. The final
decision for the selection of the unique design is left to the decision makers. [ Chedid R.,
Akiki H. and Rahman S., "A decision support technique for the design of hybrid solar-wind power systems", IEEE

Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 13, No. 1, March 1998.] also used the similar concepts;
however, the trade-off curve is presented in 3-D space of cost of energy ($/kWh),
SOX emission (kg/year) and expected energy not supplied (EENS – kWh/year).

51
The outcome of the method is not a unique optimal design, but a small set of robust
designs which are left after all inferior designs have been eliminated. These robust
designs are expected to work well under most foreseeable conditions. The final
decision for the selection of the unique design to be implemented is left to the
decision makers.

Fig. 0..0 Possible plans at all possible futures

Fig. 0..0 gives the trade off curves sets for futures #1, #2 and #3 which represent
intermediate and extreme (min / max) wind and solar source availabilities. Each point
(dot) in the figure represents a plan, i.e. a specific WG rated power, solar plant rated
power and Battery capacity, and the associated attributes (Cost and LOLP).

2.6.4.5. Iterative Technique

The approach starts from an initial system design, the total cost was calculated and in
the next iteration, the new unit sizing components is perturbed, while satisfying all the
constraints. The new solution is only accepted if the new cost was lower.

52
 The flowchart of HSWS (hybrid solar-wind system) optimization in iterative technique

Yang et al. [Yang H., Lu L. and Zhou W., "A novel optimization sizing model for hybrid solar–wind power

generation system", Solar Energy, Vol. 81, issue 1, pp. 76-84, 2007.] proposed a hybrid solar–wind system
optimization (HSWSO) model, which utilizes the iterative optimization technique
following the LPSP model and Levelised Cost of Energy model for power reliability
and system cost respectively. Three sizing parameters are considered in the
simulation, i.e. the capacity of PV system, rated power of wind system, and capacity
of the battery bank. For the desired LPSP value, the optimum configuration can be
identified finally by iteratively searching all the possible sets of configurations to
achieve the lowest Levelised Cost of Energy.

Similarly, an iterative optimization method was presented by Kellogg et al. [Kellogg

W.D., Nehrir M.H., Venkataramanan G., and V. Gerez., "Generation unit sizing and cost analysis for stand-alone wind,
photovoltaic and hybrid wind/PV systems", IEEE Transactions on Energy Convers., Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 70-75, March

1998.] to select the wind turbine size and PV module number using an iterative
procedure to make the difference between the generated and demanded power (DP) as

53
close to zero as possible over a period of time. From this iterative procedure, several
possible combinations of solar–wind generation capacities were obtained. The total
annual cost for each configuration is then calculated and the combination with the
lowest cost is selected to represent the optimum mixture.

For iterative optimization method, minimization of the system cost was implemented
either by linearly changing the values of the corresponding decision variables or
employing linear programming techniques, resulting in suboptimal solutions and
increased computational effort requirements. Furthermore, it usually does not
optimize the PV module slope angle and wind turbine installation heights which also
highly affect both, the resulting energy production and system costs.

2.6.4.6. Artificial Intelligence Methods

Artificial intelligence is a term that in its broadest sense would mean the ability of a
machine or tool to perform similar kinds of functions that characterize human thought
[Mellit A., Kalogirou S., Hontoria L. and Shaari S., "Artificial intelligence techniques for sizing photovoltaic systems: a
review", Renew Sustain Energy Rev., pp. 406-419, Vol. 13, issue 2, 2009.]. Artificial intelligence methods,
such as Genetic Algorithms, Artificial Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, and Particle
Swarm, are widely used to optimize a hybrid system in order to maximize its
economic benefits [Yiannis A., Pavlos S., and Emmanuel S., " Genetic Algorithm Solution to Optimal Sizing
Problem of Small Autonomous Hybrid Power Systems", Computer Science, Vol. 6040/2010, pp. 327-332, 2010M].

Genetic Algorithms are selected because they have shown to be highly applicable to
cases of non-linear systems, where the location of the global optimum is a difficult
task. Due to the probabilistic development of solutions, Genetic Algorithms are not
restricted by local optimum; it can find the global optimum system configuration with
relative computational simplicity compared to conventional optimization methods
such as dynamic programming and gradient techniques.

Koutroulis et al. [Koutroulis E., "Methodology for optimal sizing of stand-alone photovoltaic/wind-generator
systems using genetic algorithms', Solar Energy, Vol. 80, issue 9, pp.1072–1088, 2006.] proposed a
methodology for optimum design of a hybrid solar–wind system. Purpose of the
proposed methodology is to suggest, among a list of commercially available system
devices, the optimum number and type of units ensuring that the 20-year round total

54
system cost is minimized by Genetic Algorithms subject to the constraint that the load
energy requirements are completely covered, resulting in zero load rejection.

Yang et al. [Yang H., Zhou W., Lu L. and Fang Z., "Optimal sizing method for stand-alone hybrid solar–wind
system with LPSP technology by using genetic algorithm", Solar Energy, Vol. 82, issue 4, pp. 354-367, 2008]

proposed one optimum sizing method based on Genetic Algorithms by using the
Typical Meteorological Year data. This optimization model is proposed to calculate
the system optimum configuration which can achieve the desired LPSP with
minimum Annualized Cost of System. The author has brought into picture two
optimization variables that are not commonly seen, PV array slope angle and turbine
installation height.

Dufo-López [Dufo-López R. and Bernal-Agustín JL., "Design and control strategies of PV–diesel systems using
genetic algorithms", Solar Energy, pp. 33–46, Vol. 79, issue 1, 2005.] and Seeling [Seeling G., "A combined

optimisation concept for the design and operation strategy of hybrid-PV energy systems", Solar Energy, pp. 77-87, Vol.

61, issue 2, 1997.] used Genetic Algorithms reducing simulation time significantly,
addressing the problems of uncertain renewable energy supplies, load demand and the
non-linear characteristics of some components by incorporating past and future
demand. Genetic Algorithms are also widely used in the design of large power
distribution systems [Ramirez-Rosado IJ. and Bernal-Agustin JL., "Genetic algorithms applied to the design of
large power distribution systems", IEEE Trans., Power System, pp. 696–703, Vol. 13, issue 2, 1998.] and the
solution of power economic dispatch problems [Li F., "A comparison of genetic algorithms with
conventional techniques on a spectrum of power economic dispatch problems", Expert System Appl., pp. 133-142, Vol.

15, 1998.] because of their ability to handle complex problems with linear or non-linear
cost functions both, accurately and efficiently.

Based on Genetic Algorithms, one pilot hybrid solar–wind power generation project
designed by Yang et al. was built to supply power for a telecommunication relay
station from renewable energy sources on a remote island (Dalajia Island) along the
south-east coast of China [yang 2008, 2007][Yang HX., Zhou W. and Lou CZ., "Optimal design and
techno-economic analysis of a hybrid solar–wind power generation system", Appl. Energy, pp. 163-169, Vol. 86, 2009.].

The electric use for the normal operation of the telecommunication station includes
1300W GSM base station RBS2206 consumption (24 V AC) and 200W for
microwave communication (24 V DC). According to the project requirement and
technical considerations, a continuous 1500W energy consumption is chosen as the

55
demand load, and the detailed design parameters are shown in Table 1. Furthermore,
based on the one year time-series field data of the pilot project, Zhou et al. [Zhou W, Yang
HX and Fang ZH, "Battery behavior prediction and battery working states analysis of a hybrid solar–wind power

generation system", Renewable Energy, Vol. 33, issue 6, pp. 1413-1423, June 2008.] studied the system
behaviors and good performance observed.

Table 1
Detailed design parameters of the pilot hybrid solar-wind power generation project
Load PV array Wind turbine Bateery capacity

Design parameters 1500 W (+24 V) MBFP 100 WT6000/024 GFM-1000 (2 V)

100W × 78 = 7.8 kW 6 kW × 2 = 12 kW 500 Ah (24 V)

o
(29.5 inclination )

Artificial Neural Network, often just called "Neural Network", is a mathematical

model or computational model based on biological neural networks. It consists of an
interconnected group of artificial neurons and processes information using a
connectionist approach to computation. Kalogirou A. [Kalogirou A. S., "Optimization of solar

systems using artificial neural-networks and genetic algorithms", Applied Energy, Vol. 77, issue 4, pp. 383-405, April

2004.] proposed an optimization model of solar systems by using Artificial Neural

Networks and Genetic Algorithms. The system is modeled using TRNSYS computer
program simulation results and the climatic conditions of Cyprus, included in a
Typical Meteorological Year file. The Artificial Neural Network is trained using the
results of a small number of TRNSYS simulations to learn the correlation of collector
area and storage tank size on the auxiliary energy required by the system and thus on
the net solar energy price. Subsequently a genetic algorithm is employed to estimate
the optimum size of these two parameters, for maximizing life-cycle savings , thus the
design time is reduced substantially and the solution obtained is more accurate that
the trial and error method used traditionally in these optimizations.

Although, the local optimal solution is the main disadvantage of particle swarm
optimization (PSO), an advanced variation of PSO algorithm is used to solve the
optimization problem of hybrid renewable energy power systems in most recent
studies [Kaviani K.A., Riahy G.H. and Kouhsari SH.M., " Optimal design of a reliable hydrogen-based stand-alone
wind/PV generating system, considering component outages", Renewable Energy, ,Vol. 34, Issue 11, pp. 2380-2390,

November 2009][ Hakimi S.M. and Moghaddas-Tafreshi S.M., " Optimal sizing of a stand-alone hybrid power system

via particle swarm optimization for Kahnouj area in south-east of Iran", Renewable Energy, Vol. 34, Issue 7, pp. 1855-

1862, July 2009][ Phuangpornpitak N., Prommee W., Tia S. and Phuangpornpitak W., "A Study of Particle Swarm

56
Technique for Renewable Energy Power Systems", International Conference on Energy and Sustainable Development:

Issues and Strategies (ESD 2010), Empress Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2-4 June 2010.].

Another drawbacks of PSO technique still exist as addressed in [ AlRashidi M.R. and El-

Hawary M.E., "A Survey of Particle Swarm Optimization Applications in Electric Power Systems", IEEE Transactions

on Evolutionary Computation, pp. 913- 918, Vol. 13, issue 4, 2009] as follows:

• More parameters tuning is required, and

• Programming skills are required to develop and modify the competing algorithm to
suit different optimization problems.

There are three main approaches to achieve the optimal configurations of hybrid
systems in terms of technical analysis and economical analysis:

1. least square method (Castle, 1981; Borowy and Salameh, 1994; Gomaa et al.,
1995: kellog),

2. the loss of power supply probability (LPSP) method (Abouzahr and

Ramakumar,1990, 1991; Beyer and Langer, 1996; Yang et al., 2003)

3. and the trade-o¢¢ method (Burke, 1988; Gavanidou and Bakirtzis, 1992; Yang and
Burnett, 1999; Chedid et al., 1998; Elhadidy and Shaahid, 1999).

57
2.7. System control for energy flow and management
One main problem for the hybrid solar–wind system is related to the control and
supervision of the energy distribution. The dynamic interaction between the
renewable energy sources and the load demand can lead to, critical problems of
stability and power quality, that are not very common in conventional power systems.
Managing flow of energy throughout the proposed hybrid system to assure continuous
power supply for the load demand is essential.

Conventional approach that controlling power supply to the load requirement

according to the demand was used in various hybrid systems. In the conventional
approach, power electronics based DC–DC converter are used for maximum energy
extract from solar and wind energy resources and control the complete hybrid system.

Some researchers have used different conventional controlling technique [Reddy K. and
Agarwal V., "Utility interactive hybrid distributed generation scheme with compensation feature", IEEE Trans Energy

Convers, pp. 666-673, Vol. 22, issue 3, 2007.] for different combination of hybrid energy systems.
Park et al. [Park S., Kang B., Yoon J., Cha I. and Lim J., "A study on the stand-alone operating or photovoltaic wind
power hybrid generation system", In: 35th annual IEEE power electronics specialists conference, pp. 2095-2099, 2004.]

presented the power compensation system for controlling energy flow through hybrid
energy system according to load demand. Valenciaga and Puleston [Valenciaga F. and

Puleston P., "Supervisor control for a stand-alone hybrid generation system using wind and photovoltaic energy", IEEE

Trans Energy Convers, pp. 398-440, Vol. 20, issue 2, 2005.] and Onaret al. [Onar O., Uzunoglu M. and Alam M.,
"Dynamic modeling, design and simulation of a wind/fuel cell/ultra-capacitor-based hybrid power generation system",

Journal Power Sources, pp. 707-722, Vol. 161, issue 1, 2006.] developed controller for hybrid power
systems.

Valenciaga and Puleston [Valenciaga F] developed three modes of operation and they
used sliding mode control methods [Beltran B., "Sliding mode power control of variable-speed wind", In:
Electric machines and drives conference, Vol. 2, pp. 943-9048, 2007.] for controlling the hybrid system.

Beside the conventional approaches, some advanced controlling techniques exist,

which can remove the power fluctuations caused by the variability of the renewable
energy sources that may affect the quality of the power delivered to the load.

El-Hagry et al. [El-Hagry M., Eskander M. and El-Shater T., "Energy flow and management of a hybrid

wind/PV/fuel cell generation system ", Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 47, Issues 9-10, pp. 1264-1280, June

58
2006.] discussed the energy flow and management of a hybrid solar–wind–fuel system.
Each of the three energy sources is controlled so as to deliver energy at optimum
efficiency by Fuzzy Logic control technique which is employed to achieve maximum
power tracking for both solar and wind energies and to deliver its maximum power to
a fixed DC voltage bus.

Chedid and Rahman [Chedid R. and Rahman S., "Unit sizing and control of hybrid wind–solar power systems",
IEEE Trans Energy Convers, pp. 79-85, Vol. 12, issue 1, 1997.] presented controller design that monitors
the operation of the stand-alone or grid-connected systems. The controller determines
the energy available from each of the system components and environmental credit of
the system. The model developed can give production cost, unmet and spilled
energies, and battery charged and discharged losses. Some new approaches based on
Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithm techniques [Senjyu T., Hayashi D., Urasaki N. and Funabashi T.,
"Optimum configuration for renewable generating systems in residence using genetic algorithm", IEEE Trans Energy

Convers, pp. 459-467, vol. 21, issue 1, 2006.][Chedid R., Karaki S. and El-Chamali C., "Adaptive fuzzy control for wind–

diesel weak power system", IEEE Trans Energy Convers, pp. 71-78, Vol. 15, issue 1, 2000.] are also proposed for
the scheduling of the battery and the diesel generator of a hybrid solar–wind–diesel
system.

59
With respect to the design of stand-alone hybrid renewable energy systems, several
previous works have certain limitations: some is subjected to only two parameters to
be included in the optimization process (graphic construction method), some give
oversized components (Karaki S. H., et al. 1999); some leave many design configurations for
users to select (trade-off method); and some are very lengthy and time consuming
(iterative technique). This work produces a framework for the design of stand-alone
hybrid energy systems that depends on the new search technique as a branch of
Artificial intelligence (namely Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm or Particle Swarm),
which guarantee to find the global optimum system configuration with relative
computational simplicity.

60