Optimization of PV Based Standalone Hybrid Energy System using Cuckoo Search Algorithm

Background: Renewable sources of energy have emerged as a promising eco-friendly alternative to the conventional and non-renewable sources of energy. However, highly variable and intermittent nature of renewable sources acts as a big hurdle in their widespread adoption. Hybrid energy systems provide an efficient and reliable solution to this issue, especially for the non-grid connected or stand-alone systems. Objective: The study deals with the design and optimization of a stand-alone hybrid renewable energy system. Methods: Two different configurations consisting of PV/W/B/DG have been modeled and optimized for lower annualized cost using cuckoo search, a meta-heuristic algorithm. Analysis of these system configurations has been carried to meet the energy demand at the least annualized cost. Results and Conclusion: Using a real world data for an existing educational organization in India, it is proven that the proposed optimization method meets all the requirements of the system and PV/B/DG configuration returns a lower annualized cost as well as leads to lower emissions.