Cost optimization of a hybrid energy storage system

using GAMS

Bhaskarjyoti Das Ashwani Kumar,Senior member,IEEE

School of Renewable Energy and Efficiency Department of Electrical Engineering
NIT Kurukshetra NIT Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra, India Kurukshetra, India
bhaskar3035@gmail.com ashwani.k.sharma@nitkkr.ac.in

Abstract—By using two different energy storage systems the wind/solar energy. But the issue with batteries is that it most
technical merits of both of them are exploited mostly in terms of of the times get deeply discharged, which hampers the battery
their specific power and energy densities differences. The energy and also shortens its lifespan. Also, if the battery is
density of a battery is high but its power density is less which is undercharged it results in stratification and sulfating which
opposite in the case of supercapacitor (SC). Thus, combining collectively shortens the battery lifespan [3]. The life of the
battery and supercapacitor the battery lifespan is prolonged battery also gets hampered due to the generation of destructive
which makes the system more reliable and efficient. In this paper, gas (gassing) which is an outcome of overcharging the battery.
the battery and supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system
(HESS) model is presented. The optimization of the HESS by Supercapacitor (SC) which is emerging as a new type of
reducing the operation costs and investment costs is necessary so energy storage is fast gaining attention due to its longer life
that the wind/solar energy are fully utilized. The objective of the cycle, high power density, higher charging–discharging
optimization is the minimization of operation and capital costs in efficiencies, and free maintenance [4]. The capacity
the complete lifespan considering the constraints. In this paper, comparison of a battery and super-capacitor is shown in
nonlinear programming (NLP) is used in General Algebraic TABLE I.
Modelling Software (GAMS) to solve the optimization problem.
The GAMS which is an effective and simple platform for TABLE I. COMPARISON OF BATTERY AND SC
optimization computations consists of a number of solvers with
different algorithms. The CONOPT solver is used for solving the Parameter Battery SC
optimization model in this paper. The results obtained henceforth Energy density 20-100Wh/kg 1-10Wh/kg
are studied and then compared with the results obtained by Charge Time 1-5hrs 1-30sec
optimizing the HESS system with particle swarm optimization
Life cycle 500-2000 >500,000
(PSO) technique. The results obtained by solving with GAMS are
1000-2000
optimized, better and showed lesser computation time. Power density 50-200w/kg
w/kg
Discharge Time 0.2-3hrs 1-30sec
Keywords— Hybrid energy storage system (HESS), battery,
Supercapacitor (SC), General Algebraic Modelling Software Efficiency 70-85% 90-95%
(GAMS), wind/solar energy, optimization,nonlinear Operating Temp 0-60°C -40-70°C
programming(NLP), particle swarm optimization(PSO).

Combining the super-capacitor and the battery will greatly

I. INTRODUCTION
Growing energy demand and the gradual depletion of the
conventional energy resources has encouraged a good amount
of research and development in the field of renewable energies
such as the wind and solar energy. Although renewable
energies are the clean and noiseless source of electricity, their
intermittent nature is a matter of concern [1]. This
intermittency creates an imbalance between power generation
and demand. In order to establish proper reliability and
continuity of the electricity load, an energy storage system
device needs to be setup in the existing solar/wind generation
system [2]. Presently, battery energy storage is the type of
energy storage device which is highly exploited and is
extensively used in the renewable energy generation of
enhance the techno-economic aspects of the overall energy
storage system [5]. The energy storage devices available are
comparatively expensive and this calls for the optimal
combinations of sources of Renewable energy (RE), load
demand and energy storage systems thus to check the
intermittency issue of RE sources and to make the RE supply
system more reliable and economic.
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) which is a population
base stochastic optimization technique has been extensively
used in the optimization process owing to its simplicity. In [6],
a hybrid algorithm has been used for the optimization
computation of HESS of SC and battery. The hybrid algorithm
consists of a PSO algorithm that has a high ability of global
search and another algorithm which has a high ability of local

978-1-5090-4679-9/17/$31.00 2017
c IEEE 89

Authorized licensed use limited to: MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Downloaded on January 10,2022 at 07:40:39 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 search. The algorithm is effective but the steps are lengthy and
there is a scope of error. In this paper, the optimization model
of the battery-SC HESS [6] has been adapted and computed
with the General Algebraic modeling software (GAMS) which
is an effective, fast and simple platform for optimization
computations.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BATTERY AND
SUPERCAPACITOR
A. Supercapacitor(SC) definition
The energy per unit mass or volume of a SC is hundred to
thousand times higher compared to the conventional
capacitor. It can rather be said to be a high-energy version
of the regular capacitor. A SC is an electrochemical device
and consists of two porous electrodes which are immersed
in an electrolytic solution and stores electrostatic charge. A
SC’s area is obtained from a carbon-based porous
electrode, unlike the general capacitor which area is
obtained from a flat conductor material thus giving a high
capacitance to SC [4].
B. Supercapacitor(SC) modeling
SCs are considered with x numbers in parallel and x
numbers in series group necessarily because a single SC
can store a limited amount of energy and cannot hold up
the much high voltage. Accordingly, the equivalent
capacitance and the energy stored in the SC are given by
the following expressions [6],
x maximum[12].Accordingly, say, the respective power of solar,
C= × Cs (1)
y
Esc = 0.5 × x 2 × C × (V 2 sm − V 2 sn ) (2)
Where, Cs indicates a single SC’s capacitance; C is the
total or equivalent capacitance; Esc is the stored energy of
SC; Vsn and Vsm indicates the single SC’s minimum and
maximum voltages respectively. Here, in the expression,
the stored energy of the SC is showing dependence upon
single SCs parameters and number of parallel connections
but and has no relation to the number of series connections
of the SC group.
C. Battery modeling
Say, I, the rated charging current represents both
discharging and charging currents of the battery; t1 and t2
are the respective times for battery’s charging and
discharging (h), respectively, and V is the battery’s
reference voltage which is selected as 24 Volts, then the
capacity(Wh) of the battery can be expressed as[7],
Pbat = V × I × t1 (3)
Pbat = V × I × t2 (4)
90 2017 International Conference on Power and Embedded Drive Control (ICPEDC)
Authorized licensed use limited to: MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Downloaded on January 10,2022 at 07:40:39 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
III. OPTIMIZATION MODEL OF HESS OF BATTERY-
SUPERCAPACITOR(SC)
The operation costs and capital costs in the complete life
span of the HESS need to be minimized as an objective of
optimization satisfying all the parameters of the solar/wind
generation. If the complete life cycle of the HESS is taken as
20years then the objective function of optimization is given as
[9],
Min(Cost ) = (Cbat × Ebat + Csc × x × y) + (20 × dbat × Cbat × Ebat )
(5)
+(20 × Mbat × Ebat + 20 × dsc × Csc × x × y + 20 × Msc × x × y)
Where, Cbat indicates the cost of per unit battery which is
0.8 US $ /Wh; Ebat indicates the capacity of battery unit in Wh
; dbat is yearly rate of discount of the battery unit which is
15%/year; dsc is the yearly rate of discount of SC unit,1%/year;
Csc is the cost of unit SC which is 0.75 US $/F; Mbat is the
yearly costs of maintenance of battery unit, 0.22 US $/KWh;
and Msc is yearly costs of maintenance of per unit SC,0.01
US $/F [6] [10].
The constraint conditions that are to be considered during
optimization of the HESS of battery –SC are as follows
A. Maximum and minimum power
In order to fully utilize the wind/solar generation system the
energy storage system considered should be charged to its full
capacity during that period in which power surplus is
wind and load demand are Ps , Pw and Pl , then
Ps + Pw − P1 ≥ Pbat + Psc (6)
For maintaining the power supply continuity and ensuring the
reliability of the system when the system is under weather
uncertainties, the load must be satisfied in that period with the
highest power loss[12].Therefore, for highest power loss
period the respective power of solar, wind and load demand
are taken as Ps1, Pw1 and Pl1 respectively, then
Ps1 + Pw1 + Pbat + Psc ≥ Pl1 (7)
B. SC currents constraints
The SC has low energy density and it mainly provides the
maximum instantaneous fluctuation power of load in the
system. If it is assumed that the battery-SC system completes
full charge/discharge 100 times annually and 8I current
appears every ten sec for the load, which is the discharging
current Id of the SC [11]
8 I ≤ Id ≤ Isc max (8)
Where, Isc max denotes the maximum discharging and charging
currents of the SC. The maximum fluctuation current is
assumed to be 3I, which is the charging current Ic of the SC.
3I ≤ Ic ≤ Isc max (9)
 IV. GENERAL ALGEBRAIC MODELING SOFTWARE(GAMS)

The GAMS is a high-level modeling platform designed The monthly total power generated from renewable
especially for the purpose of modeling linear, nonlinear and sources and the average load demand is checked for the
also mixed integer optimization problem. It is specially built maximum power surplus and maximum power loss which
for large, complex applications of modeling and allows is evident from the difference of the generated power from
building maintainable large models that can be fast adapted to RE sources and the power consumption. The monthly total
the new system. The GAMS is efficient to handle complex, generated power, their corresponding power consumption
one-of-a-kind models which may otherwise require several and the difference of both is shown in Fig.1.
revisions to establish an accurate model. There are a number
of solvers in GAMS that are to be used to solve the
optimization problem. Different solvers such as CONOPT,
DICOPT, KNITRO, etc are available that employs different
algorithms for solving the problem in designed model. The
programmer needs to wisely select the particular solver ideal
for solving the type of problem in the model designed. The
CONOPT uses the algorithm which is based on the GRG
algorithm with added new extensions like preprocessing,
linear iterations, sequential programming, etc to make it more
efficient for complex, large NLP models [16].
The basic structure of GAMS coded mathematical model
consists of - sets, variables, data, equations, model and the
output. The basic format of the GAMS formulation is shown Fig 1.Power generation, consumption and their difference (kWh)
below-
The peak power surplus as seen from Fig1 is on the fourth
i) Declaration of the sets, assignment of the members month and is equal to 141.09 KWh i.e.4703Wh/days while the
ii) Declaration of the parameters, tables and scalars, minimum is in the eight- month i.e. the highest power loss and
values assignment is equal to 69.34 KWh i.e.4472Wh/days. These values are
computed in the constraint conditioning in (6) and (7).Finally,
iii) Declaration of variables, variables type assignment, a GAMS program has been developed with the optimization
upper and lower bounds assignment objective function and the different constraints. The program
is checked for the data as in Table 2 to minimize the cost of
iv) Declaration of the equations and their respective
the objective function. The objective optimization is solved by
definitions.
nonlinear programming (NLP) in GAMS. The CONOPT
v) Model and solver selection solver is used in the program for solving the problem of the
designed HESS model. The CONOPT solver uses an
vi) Statement of display (optional) algorithm that solves the complex nonlinear model problems.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The variables in the program for the optimization of the
objective function are Ebat , capacity of the battery (Wh);Cost,
The generation of power from the wind and solar energy
total cost of the HESS($); Esc , capacity of the supercapacitor;
and the average load demand [6] has been considered as
shown in Table II I, rated charging or discharging current of battery; m, number
of series connections and C, total capacitance(Farads). The
TABLE II program is then solved by NLP in GAMS to get desired
POWER GENERATION AND CONSUMPTION (kWh) output. The battery voltage and the single SC voltages are
taken as 24 volts and 3 volts respectively. The capacitance
Total power
Month
generation(Kwh)
Load(Kwh) comes out to be 84.229 Farads with 3 numbers of series
Jan 308.73 336.04 connections of super-capacitors and 125 numbers in parallel,
Feb 319.13 303.52
the capacity of the supercapacitors and battery is thereby
derived in the program thus giving the optimal solution to the
Mar 412.52 336.04
objective function. The optimized results by solving the
Apr 466.29 325.20 problem using NLP in GAMS are as shown in Table III.
May 360.85 336.02
TABLE III
June 301.51 325.12 RESULTS OBTAINED BY SOLVING WITH GAMS
July 297.49 336.04
Parameter Optimized results
Aug 266.70 336.04
Total Cost
Sep 269.68 325.20 6280.58
(US$)
Oct 308.72 336.04 Ebat (Wh) 748.8
Nov 341.01 325.21 I(A) 12
Dec 407.23 336.04 Esc(Wh) 3723.20

2017 International Conference on Power and Embedded Drive Control (ICPEDC) 91

Authorized licensed use limited to: MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Downloaded on January 10,2022 at 07:40:39 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

The optimization results of the hybrid system [6] have
been studied and it has been compared with the results
obtained by solving the optimization problem through NLP in
GAMS. The comparison of the costs and computation time of
the optimization computations through standard optimization
algorithm PSO and through GAMS is shown in Table IV.
TABLE IV COMPARISON OF THE RESULTS OF GAMS AND PSO
Optimization Computation
Total Cost(US$)
platform time(sec)
PSO 6592.460 8.41
GAMS 6280.581 0.015
It is seen from Table IV that the total costs calculated by
GAMS is less than that calculated by PSO technique. The
computation time of the solution of the optimization problem
by NLP in GAMS showed lesser value than the PSO. Thus,
solving the optimization problem of the HESS model through
GAMS proved to have efficient results and faster computation
time.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The mathematical modelling of the battery-SC HESS is
presented in this paper. The SC is a good choice for
applications requiring peak power due to its greater power
density, it along with the battery supplies power to the load
when the renewable energy sources due to their intermittent
nature are not producing desired power. The combination of
the SC with the battery results in enhancement of the battery
lifespan and also a reduction in battery pack size. The battery-
SC system, the renewable energy sources, load all need to
have an optimal combination in order to have an economic and
reliable renewable energy generation power system. The
optimization problem is solved using the NLP in GAMS
software that provides an excellent simple and fast platform
for optimization computations. The operation and investment
costs are reduced maximizing the renewable energy also
satisfying the demand. The results obtained thereby through
the GAMS solver are studied and compared with the results of
optimization through the PSO algorithm. The GAMS
computation of the optimization problem resulted in optimized
values, lesser costs and lesser computation time. The GAMS
CONOPT approach of solving optimization models is
therefore effective and promising for the solution of complex
models optimization in power systems.
[4] A. Burke, “Ultracapacitors: why, how, and where is the technology”,
Journal of Power Sources, Vol.91, pp 37-50,2000
[5] R. Dougal, S. Liu, and R. White, “Power and life extension of battery–
ultracapacitor hybrids,” IEEE Trans. Compon. Packag. Technol. vol.
25, no. 1, pp. 120–131, Mar. 2002
[6] Tianpei zhou,Wei sun,"Optimization of a battery-supercapacitor hybrid
energy station in wind/solar generation system”,IEEE transactions on
sustainable energy,vol.5,no.2,pp 408-415,Apr.2014
[7] K. W. Wee, S. S. Choi, and D. M. Vilathgamuwa, “Design of a least-
cost battery–supercapacitor energy storage system for realizing
dispatchable wind power,” IEEE Trans. Sustain. Energy, vol. 4, no. 2,
pp. 786–796, Apr. 2013.
[8] I. F. Ongaro, S. Saggini, and P. Mattavelli, “Li-ion battery–
supercapacitor hybrid storage system for a long lifetime, photovoltaic-
based wireless sensor network,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27,
no. 9, pp. 3944–3952, Sep. 2011.
[9] R. Karki, P. Hu, and R. Billinton, “A simplified wind power generation
model for reliability evaluation,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 21,
no. 2, pp. 533–540, Apr. 2006.
[10] H. B. Wu, B. Chen, and C. Y. Guo, “Capacity optimization of hybrid
energy storage units in wind/solar generation system,” Trans. Chin. Soc.
Agric. Eng., vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 241–245, Apr. 2011
[11] D. M. Xu, L. Y. Kang, and B. G. Cao, “Optimal design of standalone
hybrid wind/PV power systems,” Acta Energ. Solar. Sin., vol. 27, no. 9,
pp. 919–922, Sep. 2006.
[12] H. L. Song, J. Y. Wu, and L. Y. Ji, “Multi-objective optimal sizing of
standalone hybrid wind/PV system,” Trans. China Electrotechn. Soc.,
vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 104–111, Jul. 2011
[13] D. J. Spiers and A. A. Rasinkoski, “Limits to battery lifetime in
photovoltaic applications,” Solar Energy, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 147–154,
Oct. 1996.
[14] M.E. Glavin and W.G. Hurley, Ultracapacitor/Battery Hybrid for Solar
Energy Storage, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland, IEEE
Trans., pp791-795 April 7, 2009
[15] J. Hongxin, F. Yang, Z. Yu, H. Weiguo, “Design of hybrid energy
storage control system for wind farms based on flow battery and electric
double-layer capacitor”, in Proc. of IEEE 2010 Asia-Pacific Power and
Energy Conference (APPEEC), pp. 1-6.
[16] Sichard E.Rosenthal, GAMS, A User’s Guide,Tutorial GAMS
Development Corporation,Washington,2010.

References
[1] P. Ribeiro, B. Johnson, M. Crow,A.Arsoy, andY. Liu, “Energy storage
systems for advanced power applications,” Proccedings. IEEE, vol. 89,
no. 12,pp. 1744–1756, Dec. 2001
[2] P. Denholm,B. Kirby, E. Ela, M. Milligan, “Role of Energy Storage with
Renewable Electricity Generation”. NREL/TP-6A2e47187. National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2010.
[3] H. Ibrahim, A. Ilinca, J. Perron, “Energy storage systems—
Characteristics and comparisons”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews.vol. 12 , pp.1221–1250,June 2008

92 2017 International Conference on Power and Embedded Drive Control (ICPEDC)

Authorized licensed use limited to: MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Downloaded on January 10,2022 at 07:40:39 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.