Design, Operation and Economic Analysis of Autonomous Hybrid PV-Diesel Power Systems Including Battery Storage

This paper presents a systematic techno-economic analysis of autonomous PV-Diesel energy system with battery storage. This hybrid type power system was developed and installed on the roof of the Electrical Engineering Laboratory building in the city of Xanthi, Greece, where a weather station is also installed providing necessary meteorological data since 2002. Such system can be generally used to supply electrical loads of isolated remote areas. The actual design of such a system is based on: a pre-defined load pattern to be supplied; the pertinent weather data; the relevant market prices; and the applicable recent economic rates (eg June 2009 for the Greek case). The system is operated on a predictive manner using a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) which controls the main system parameters for safe and continuous power supply to meet reliably the desired load demand. Three distinct systems of this type and of equal capacity, which combine energy sources and battery storage have been proposed and assessed technically and economically.