Proceedings of the 2016 5th International Conference on
4
Systems and Control, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh,
Morocco, May 25-27, 2016
Optimization of hybrid renewable energy power systems using
Evolutionary algorithms
Jihane KARTITE, Mohamed CHERKAOUI
Abstract— the power produced from PV panel and wind
turbine generators are based on weather condition, as a result
this system is unreliable. The hybridization of this system with
another source such as batteries or diesel generator increases
significantly the reliability of the whole system. This paper
recommends an optimization method of hybrid solar-wind
battery systems based on BSA (Backtracking Search
Algorithm) algorithm, following its steps the BSA algorithm
attains the global optimum with reasonable time and presents
a good results comparing with other algorithm (Genetic
Algorithm). The decision variables have included in the
optimization process are the number of PV module, the
number of wind turbines and the number of batteries.
I. INTRODUCTION
Aware of its infinite reserve, alternative energy
have attracted energy sectors to produce power, the main
ones have been used widely are hydro, wind and
photovoltaic [1].
In remote and isolated area, it is difficult to have a power
from the electrical grid. They usually use diesel generators
to supply power demand. However, many problems can
occur [1, 2].
The PV system, wind turbine system or both of them are a
good compromise to resolve such problems, in order to feed
the power demand. In this case the backup devices like
diesel generator or batteries are necessaries [2].
The system combined solar source with wind
turbine and battery bank is called hybrid system, the most
advantage of such system is its reliability [3-5] and
complementarity in producing power. It is the best solution
for electrifying remote and isolated places. These
independent energy systems are becoming more popular for
some reasons; increasing fossil fuel costs and decreasing
prices of turbines and PV panels [4].
Designing a hybrid system involves many
variables, therefore classical methods of optimization do not
give optimal results, for this reason the evolutionary
methods must be used [6].
J.Kartite is with Electrical Engineering Department, Mohammedia
school of engineers, MOROCCO (corresponding author to provide phone:
+212 658 673 415; e-mail: kartite.jihane@ gmail.com).
M.Cherkaoui is with Electrical Engineering Department, Mohammedia
school of engineers, MOROCCO (e-mail: cherkaoui@emi.ac.ma).
978-1-4673-8953-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
FrAA.
Optimization methods can be used to achieve a good
compromise between load and system cost.
Recently different methods have been applied to size a
hybrid renewable energy system. Chedid and Rahman in [7]
use linear programming to optimize their system, in [8]
Yang and Zhou present an iterative technique to minimize a
system cost. Another technique in [9], Genetic algorithm, is
introduced by Xu Kang.
Sizing such system is an important step to
guarantee its reliability; therefore it is necessary to choose
the best combination of components and their numbers.
This paper introduces a methodology for optimizing a
hybrid system composed of photo-voltaic (PV) panels, wind
turbines generators and batteries. This methodology is based
on BSA algorithm, which is an evolutionary algorithm, to
find the best combination between PV panels, wind turbines
and batteries. This combination must meet the energy
demand with an optimal cost, and then the previous
algorithm is compared with other meta-heuristic algorithm
(GA).
As shown in the figure 1, the system is composed of
photovoltaic generator, wind turbines and batteries which
provide energy to the load. The battery stores the excess of
energy.
The paper is organized as follows: First, the system model
is presented in details. Then, an overview of the BSA
algorithm is developed, to introduce its theory.
Subsequently, the Section 4 and section 5 present
respectively the simulation results and the paper conclusion.
PV
panels
Wind Bidirectional
turbine inverter Load
s
Battery
Figure 1. Simple renewable energy hybrid system
383
 II. HYBRID SYSTEM MODEL B. Wind generating model

A. Pv array modeling The power of the wind turbine depends to the

The power output from a PV array depends to wind speed, on the air density and the radius of the rotor
the site. It’s indispensable to have the meteorological data of [11].
the system location to determine the power of the PV The mathematical model is expressed in the following
generator [10]. The power of PV array is highly dependent equations:
on the insulation.
0, v vd
1
Edirc  Edir  cos  (1)
      R 2  V 3 , v d  v vn
W  2 (9)
Where Edirc is the direct sunlight received by the collector,
 Pn , vn  v vc
Edir is the direct sunlight and  is the incidence angle 
between the sun and the collector. 0, v vc
1  cos  (2)
Where W is the wind power, V is the wind speed, Vd is the
Edifc  Edif  ( )
2 boot speed Vn is the rated speed, Vc is the shutdown
Where Edifc is the diffuse radiation received by the speed.
collector and Edif is the diffuse radiation.
 is the air density, R is the radius of the rotor and Pn is
Ppvc the nominal power.
Ppv  ( Edirc  Edifc )  (3)
En C. Battery model
Where Ppv is the nominal power of PV panel.
The model of the battery is based on the kinetic
The Power of the PV panel is calculated taking model proposed in 1993 (JF Manwell and JG McGowan)
into account the angle of incidence θ between the sun and [12]. The model determines the maximum power P bat, max
the solar panel as shown in (1) to (3). given by the battery and its state of charge.
This angle of incidence must be calculated, it is determined The model principle is simple (see figure 2): the two tanks
from other angles as shown in (4). represent the battery. The tank 1 contains energy Q1 ,
directly available at the output. The tank 2 contains energy
cos  cos   cos( s, c)  sin  sin   cos  (4) Q2 which depends on a coefficient k.
1-c c
Where  the altitude of the sun,  s is the azimuth,  c is
the collector azimuth ∑ is the Angle of inclination of the
solar collector.
Q2 Q1
k
sin   cos L  cos   cos H  sin L  sin  (5)

Where L is the latitude of the location,  is the solar

Figure 2. Battery kinetic model
declination and H is the hour angle.
The maximum amount of energy Q1max is expressed in terms
of the quantity Q of battery power and a constant
cos   sin H (6) characterizing the battery c.
sin  s  Q1max  c  Q (10)
cos 

360 (7) Q2max  (1  c)  Q (11)

  23, 45  sin( )
365  (n  81)

Where n is the number of days in the year. Q1 (i)  Q1 (i  1)  e k t

(Q(i  1)  k  c  Pbat )  (1  e k t )

H  15  ( HS  12) (8) k (12)

P  c  (k  t  1  e k t )
 bat
Where HS is the solar time. k

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Q2 (i)  Q2 (i  1)  e  k t
Q(i  1)  (1  c)  (1  e k t )
Pbat  (1  c)  (k t  1  e k t )
 The BSA initializes the population using a uniform
k
Q(i)  Q1 (i)  Q2 (i)
Q(i )
SOC 
Q the population.
k  Q1 (i  1)  e k t  Q(i  1)  k  c  (1  e k t )
Pbat max 
1  e k t  c  (k t  1  e k t )
(16)
III. OPTIMIZATION
D. Objective function
The optimal structure of the hybrid system in
new energies must guarantee an optimal balance between
the power demanded by the load and the total cost of the
system.
The objective function which will be minimized in this
study is the total cost of the energy produced. It includes all
the costs of the components of the system:
-The Cost of acquisition of the PV generator.
-The Cost of acquisition of turbines.
-The Cost of acquisition of batteries.
The total cost of the system is given by (17).
Ctot  C pv  CEol  Cbat
We can define the cost of an item as the product of CU (unit
cost of energy), energy produced Pelement and Nelement (the
number of elements) (18).
Celement  Nelement  Pelement  CU
So we can express the objective function as follows:
Ctot  N pv  Ppv  CU pv  Nw  Pw  CU w  Nbat  Pbat  CUbat
(19)
E. Algorithm
The previous section showed the objective
function and their different parameter, so it’s important to
integrate an optimization algorithm to minimize the total
cost.
The algorithm chosed is the BSA (Backtracking Search
Optimization Algorithm [13]), which is an evolutionary
algorithm; the aim is to find the best value of total costs
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that reaches the input parameter , then the result have been
compared with the genetic algorithm.
BSA can be expressed in terms of these five main
(13) parts [14]: initialization, the selection I, mutation, crossover
and selection II.
distribution in a range between the lower and the upper
bound. After, it determines a population called the historical
(14)
population which will be used for the calculation of the
objective function. In each iteration the BSA defines a new
population. Once the population is determined, The BSA
(15) changes randomly the order of the individuals constituting
The BSA mutation process generates the initial form of
mutant. Crossover process generates the final shape of the
test population T. The parsing process has two stages; the
first calculates a binary number which indicates individual
matrix that will be manipulated (fig. 3).
IV. SIMULATION
In this study the goal is to determine the
appropriate structure of the hybrid system that should match
the energy requirement (load power) in all conditions. The
data considered during the optimization process are:
insolation, wind speed, state of charge of battery and power
demanded by the load. It is well known that the power
demanded by the load varies depending on the season
(winter, summer).
We suppose that the annual power requirement is
the daily power requirement multiplied by the number of
year days.
The power produced by the photovoltaic generator and wind
power is calculated by the predefined equations in Section
2, using meteorological data presented in Figure 4 to 6. The
power variation for the battery is determined by a
supervision algorithm.
The used value of efficiency of the DC / AC inverter is 0.9.
(17)
According to the studies have made in the field of
renewable energy hybrid systems
,several combinations of hybrid systems were evaluated to
agree on the most appropriate location of installation .The
system studied in this paper consists on a photovoltaic
(18) generator, wind energy and storage capacity. The choice of
this typical system goes in parallel with the energy policy in
Morocco.
To limit the computation time ,the maximum
number of iterations selected is 200 . The initial hybrid
system is composed of a photovoltaic generator 8 kW, a
turbine 10KW, and a 10 KAh battery.
The investment costs of PV panels, wind turbine and battery
used in the simulation are shown in table (1) to (3)
385
 Hourly meteorological data in a year

Initialization of the population

(Npv,Nw,Nbat)

PV Wind turbines Battery

panels model
model
Figure 4. Hourly load profile used in optimization

Generation of trial
population

Selection I

Mutation

Crossover Figure 5.Average hourly insolation profile

All Optimal
Y
combination configuration of
optimized N
N

Selection II

Stop condition

Figure 3. Flowchart of the BSA algorithm Figure 6. Average hourly wind profile

During the process of Simulation operations of the hybrid TABLE I. Investment costs of PV panels
system, The contribution ratio of solar and wind source has
widely and monthly changed . To resolve this problem, a Peak 20 30 60 75 100 160
storage battery is provided to meet the additional load when power(Wp)
renewable sources are insufficient
Cost($) 63.8 87 185 203.37 224.75 324.85
F. Figures and Tables

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 Photovoltaic Wind turbine Battery
TABLE II. Investment costs of batteries panel
37 1 40
Nominal 40 50 80 100 150 200
capacity(Ah) 7 1 7
Cost($) 580 690 1050 1300 1900 2400 7 2 7
7 1 2
6 1 2
TABLE III. Specification of wind turbine
6 1 1
Power(W) Hlow Hhigh Capital 9 1 1
cost($) 9 1 1
1 1000 11 35 3400
9 1 1

(c ): Number of PV/W/BAT
The optimization aim is to define a minimum hybrid system
cost insuring continuous power demand. The load type used Figure 7 .The performance of BSA
in the simulation is a domestic one. In projection to the x 10
4

18
present study the minimum to seek is related to the cost
function (objective function of the BSA algorithm) 16

expressed in (19). 14
4
x 10
16
12

14 10

Total cost
8
12

6
10

4
Total cost

8
2

6
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Number of generation
4

2
(a ):Optimal total cost

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Number of generation 18
PV
W
(a):Optimal total cost 16 BAT

In the next figures we use PV for the photovoltaic panel,W

14
for the wind turbine and BAT for the battery.
12
40
Number of PV/W/BAT

PV
10
W
35 BAT

30
6

25
Number of PV/W/BAT

20 2

15 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Number of generation

10

(b): Number of PV/W/BA

5

Photovoltaic Wind turbine Battery

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Number of generation
140 160 180 200
panel
11 1 5
(b): Number of PV/W/BAT 19 1 18
19 1 18
19 1 18

978-1-4673-8953-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 387

 19 1 1 [4] Anita Gudelj, Maja Krčum Simulation and Optimization of Independent
19 1 1 Renewable Energy Hybrid System,Transaction on Maritime
Science(02),2013,pp. 28-35.
10 1 1 [5] Orhan Ekren,Banu Y.Ekren Size optimization of a PV/wind hybrid
10 1 1 energy conversion system with battery storage using simulated
annealing,Applied energy(87),2010,pp.592-598.
10 1 1
[6] José L.Bernal-Augustin,Rodolfo Dufo-Lopez Efficient design of
10 1 1 hybrid renewable energy systems using evolutionary
algorithms,Energy Conversion and Management(50),2009,pp.
(c ) :Number of PV/W/BAT 479- 489.
[7] R.Chedid,S.Rahman Unit sizing and control of hybrid wind-solar
Figure 8.The parformance of GA power systems,Energy Conversion,vol.12,No.01,2002,pp.79-85.
[8] H.X.Yang,L.Lu,W.Zhou A novel optimization sizing model for hybrid
solar-wind power generation system,Solar
G. Result and discussions Energy(81),No.01,2007,pp.76-84.
[9] D.Xu,L.Kang,L.Chang,B.Cao Optimal sizing of stand alone hybrid
The result of the simulation leads to a system total wind/PV power systems using Genetic Algorithm ,Electrical and
Computer Engineering,2005,pp.1722-1725.
cost for BSA 11582 €and 17022 € for GA.
[10] Jérémy Lagorse Modélisation et optimisation d’alimentations
By comparing the previous algorithms, it’s apparent that the électriques autonomes stationnaires multi
value reached by the BSA is more suitable and promising sources,JCGE’08LYON,2008.
than GA. [11] D.B.Nelson,M.H.Nehrir,C.Wang Unit sizing and cost analysis of
Fig.7 and Fig.8 shows the performance of the algorithms stand-alone hybrid wind/PV/fuel cell power generation
chosed. Fig.7 (a) and (b) show that the BSA is able to give systems,Renewable energy(31),2006,pp.1641- 1656.
the best value of total cost in terms of convergence and [12] J.F.Manwell,J.G.McGowan Lead acid battery storage model for
hybrid energy systems,Solar energy (50),1993,pp.399-405.
computational time. Fig. 7 (b) and (c) give the number of
[13] Alireza Askarzadeh,Leandro dos Santos Coelho A backtracking search
PV panels, wind turbines and batteries that reached the algorithm combined with Burger’s chaotic map for parameter
optimal total cost. estimation of PEMFC electrochemical model ,International journal of
The hybrid system determined by the optimization is hydrogen energy 39 vol.III,2014,pp.65-74.
composed of: [14] Pinar Civicioglu Backtracking Search Optimization Algorithm for
numerical optimization problems,Applied Mathematics and
 A photovoltaic generator 72 KW. Computation (219),2013,pp.8121-8144.
 A wind turbine 10 KW.
 A battery 10 KAh.

CONCLUSION

This paper developed the model of an autonomous

hybrid renewable energy by referring to site meteorological
data and load profile.
First, the power produced by the PV array and
wind turbines is determined, then an optimization algorithm
is integrated to minimize total system cost. Finally the result
obtained from BSA algorithm is compared with genetic
algorithm results.
BSA algorithm results justify its suitability to face
hybrid power system problems.

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978-1-4673-8953-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 388