Optimizing the parameters of a small standalone hybrid power plant

Abstract

In recent years, interest has grown in Poland in the installation of renewable energy sources (RES), including small standalone hybrid power plants aiming at full independence of energy supply from the power grid. A hybrid power plant consists of renewable energy sources, such as a solar and/or wind power plant, an energy storage facility providing the system’s autonomy, a discharge load for surplus energy in the system, and an emergency power supply. The power plant is equipped with an energy management system. Power plant parameters are tailored to meet the requirements of continuity of supply, cost minimization, return on investment period, and system capacity utilization. The paper presents a methodology for selecting power plant parameters with a larger number of decision criteria. The task is solved as a single-criterion optimization task with a weighted quality indicator. The user priority reflecting indicator weights were determined using the multi-criteria hierarchical method for analysing decision problems, in other words the Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The climatic data typical for Polish territory and the energy needs of a selected household were selected for the study.