Optimal scheduled power flow for distributed photovoltaic/wind/diesel generators with battery storage system

In this study, two control strategies involving ‘continuous’ and ‘ON/OFF’ operation of the diesel generator in the solar photovoltaic (PV)-wind-diesel-battery hybrid systems are modelled. The main purpose of these developed models is to minimise the hybrid system's operation cost while finding the optimal power flow considering the intermittent solar and wind resources, the battery state of charge and the fluctuating load demand . The non-linearity of the load demand, the non-linearity of the diesel generator fuel consumption curve as well as the battery operation limits have been considered in the development of the models. The simulations have been performed using ‘fmincon’ for the continuous operation and ‘intlinprog’ for the ON/OFF operation strategy implemented in Matlab. These models have been applied to two test examples; the simulation results are analysed and compared with the case where the diesel generator is used alone to supply the given load demand. The results show that using the developed PV-diesel-battery optimal operation control models, significant fuel saving can be achieved compared with the case where the diesel is used alone to supply the same load requirements.