Comparative study between classical methods and genetic algorithms for sizing remote PV systems

Uncertain renewable energy supplies, load demands and the non-linear characteristics of some components of photovoltaic (PV) systems make the design problem not easy to solve by classical optimization methods, especially when relevant meteorological data are not available. To overcome this situation, modern methods based on artificial intelligence techniques have been developed for sizing PV systems. However, simple methods like worst month method are still largely used in sizing simple PV systems. In the present study, a method for sizing remote PV systems based on genetic algorithms has been compared with two classical methods, worst month method and loss of power supply probability (LPSP) method. The three methods have been applied to a PV lighting system with orientation due south and inclination angles between 0° and 90° in Adrar city (south Algeria). Because measured data for the chosen location were not available, a year of synthetic hourly meteorological data of this location, generated by PVSYST software, have been used in the simulation. Genetic algorithms and worst month methods give results close to each other between 0° and 60° but the system is largely oversized by the worst month method when the tilted angle is over 60°. The results obtained by LPSP method show that the system is very undersized. Hence, a proposition has been made to improve results obtained by this method.