Assessment of hybrid renewable energy system

considering a new feature called degradation of

system components
B. Tudu1, K. K. Mandal2, N. Chakraborty3
Power Engineering Dept.
Jadavpur University
Kolkata, India
1
bhimsen_ju@yahoo.co.in; 2kkm567@yahoo.co.in; 3chakraborty_niladri2004@yahoo.com
AbstractThe effect of degradation of each component of
hybrid renewable energy system is addressed in this study. The
effect is directly on the system performance which in turn
affects the cost of energy of the system. Initially, the test
system comprised of hydro-wind-solar-fuel cell is considered
without degradation of the system components. In this
scenario, the system capacity and cost of energy & generation
cost are calculated. This techno-economic analysis is carried
out with the help of a optimization technique called particle
swarm optimization (PSO). But this analysis is not a true
reflection of the real system because the system component
performance will degrade gradually during the lifespan of the
system. Therefore, system is again tested considering this effect
and modified system capacity and cost are presented. It is seen
that the system performance degrades and also the cost is more
if degradation parameters are considered. This result may help
researchers and engineers to understand the system more
accurately and precisely.
Index TermsHybrid energy system, Unit sizing,
Degradation, PV system, Wind turbine, Particle swarm
optimization

I. INTRODUCTION
Since the availability of the conventional resources for
energy production is limited and sparse, all nations are in
search of alternative resources. Green energy production
meets the desired load and reduces the carbon footprint
making civilization more environmental friendly. Research is
being carried out extensively all over the world to make a
better use of these available resources. Many nations
including India are investing lot of money on these energy
production technologies. Though the solar PV system or
wind energy system are installed in many places and running
successfully but due to their intermittent nature of power
production, they cant provide the power continuously
throughout the day or year. Therefore, researchers are
looking for more reliable hybrid renewable energy system
comprising different resources like wind, PV etc. and storage
to meet the local demand. Thus, the research on hybrid
renewable energy system needs special attention and system
modeling and design is to be carried out precisely for the
specific site & load of that site and its performance is to be
analyzed closely.

Different meta-heuristic optimization techniques were

applied to find out the solutions for complex, practical
engineering problems all over the world and optimization
problems of hybrid systems consisting of different energy
sources were tested with these techniques [1- 4]. The
different methods like Genetic algorithm (GA) [5-13],
Particle swarm optimization technique (PSO) [14-20],
Differential Evolution (DE), Simulated Annealing (SA),
Bees algorithm (BA) and Ant colony optimization (ACO)
techniques are popular methods for optimization of hybrid
systems [1, 3 and 4]. Apart from these algorithms, various
other techniques such as Linear programming [21, 22],
Evolutionary algorithms [23, 24], and Dynamic
programming [25] etc. have been explored by many
researchers to design, model and optimize of the hybrid
non-conventional energy systems.
Although, many literatures including above mentioned
works are available for the modeling and design of the
hybrid system across the world, nonetheless degradation of
the component is not taken into account while system
performance and feasibility of the hybrid systems are
evaluated.
The present work focuses on the sizing and technocommercial analysis of the hybrid test system consisting of
PV, wind, and fuel cell considering degradation of the
components with the help of PSO and comparative results
are presented highlighting the impact on the performance
especially on system capacity and energy cost of the system.
II. MODELING OF TEST ENERGY SYSTEM
The test hybrid system is modelled with different
renewable resources. The resources are chosen for the
specific site because of their availability. The system is
designed for a remote site far away from grid line and the
extension of the existing grid line may incur high cost. The
system consists of wind, PV, micro hydro, and fuel cell. The
global data for the solar irradiance, wind speed and load data
for the specific site are obtained and hourly variations of
these data are shown in Fig. 1 [19]. The solar irradiance and
the variations of wind speed are considered to be fixed for
the lifetime of the project time of 25 years whereas load is
assumed to be increased by 10%.

III. THE SYSTEM COST AND OBJECTIVE FUNCTION

Net present cost (NPC) of system acts as the objective
function here. The annualized system cost is the summation
of cost of each component. The component annualised cost
of hybrid systems may be expressed with the equations
shown below [26].
C ann,

= C acap, component + C arep, component +

component

+ C afc, component

C aom, component

(1)

Where, Cacap = annual capital cost of component.

C arep = annual replacement cost of component.
Fig.1. Hourly solar insolation, wind velocity and load

The hybrid solar-wind-fuel cell system in conjunction

with hydro is optimized for total load of site for a year.
Power balance equation is satisfied for each hour. Depending
on the hourly wind velocity, solar radiation and water flow,
the hourly generated power of solar modules, wind turbines,
and micro-hydro are computed based on their power output
equations. Initially, random values are generated for the
wind and solar panels. For any specific hour, if load is more
than the combined power output from the wind, solar and
micro-hydro plant, then deficit power is supplied with the
fuel cells. If there is excess power generated form the wind,
solar and hydro plants then electrolysers are operated to
utilize the excess power and produced hydrogen thereof is
stored in the hydrogen tank for future use during the
operation of fuel cell. The stored hydrogen is used during the
deficit hours of the day and this reduces the cost to buy extra
hydrogen from market and this regenerative process thus
gives the system more flexibility to operate and system
performance is increased. Hydro plant, wind turbine are
providing power to Alternating Current bus and electrolyzers
are taking power from it and this AC bus feeds the requisite
power to load and whole block diagram arrangement is given
in Fig. 2.

Solar PV

AC bus
Micro hydro

Converter
Wind turbine

AC load

Fuel cell

H2
from
open
market

Electrolyzer
Hydrogen tank

Fig.2. Schematic diagram of test hybrid system

C aom = annual O & M cost of component.

C afc = annual fuel cost of component.
The aggregate annual cost of system is given by [26]

C ann,

tot

=
N

C ann,

s = 1

c = 1
N

converter,

C ann,

e = 1

+ C ann,

C ann,

w = 1
N

C ann,

solar, s

electro,

t = 1

+ C ann,
N

wind,

tank, t

C ann,

f = 1

fuelcell,

(2)

hydro

Where N s = solar module numbers, N w = wind turbine

numbers, N c = converter numbers, N t = hydrogen tank
numbers, N e = electrolyzer numbers and N f = fuel cell
numbers.
The NPC is derived from annualized cost expressed
above
and
is
given
[19]:
C ann, tot
C NPC
=
CRF proj
The

energy cost of
C
ann, tot
COE =
total system load

hybrid

system

is

[27]:
(4)

And the generation cost of the system can be expressed as:

Cann, tot
GC =
(5)
total system generated power
The COE and GC are two parameters which give the
performance of the system under consideration and system
feasibility is checked with these parameters.
IV. PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE
The most widely and well-established optimization
technique is particle swarm optimization (PSO) and many
works based on PSO have been reported by the researchers.
It is an efficient population based optimization procedure
for multi-objective, non-linear complex problem and was

originally developed by Kenedy and Eberhart [28]. The

algorithm mimics the swarms behaviour. Each possible
solution is represented by the position of the particle in
multi-dimensional search space. The position of each
particle is updated in each iteration depending on its own
experience and its neighbour particles experiences.
The i-th particles position and velocity (i.e. i-th particle)
in a d-dimensional space, are represented by the vectors Xi
= (Xi1, Xi2, , Xid) and Vi = (Vi1, Vi2, , Vid)
respectively whereas i-th particles previous best position is
expressed as pbesti = (pbesti1, pbesti2, pbestid). The best
particles index in group is represented by gbestd.
The modified position of each particle is determined by its
current velocity and the distance from pbestid to gbestd and
modified velocity is as shown [28, 29]

Vidk+1 = wkVidk + c1r1( pbestid Xidk ) + c2r2 (gbestid Xidk )

(6)

i =1, 2, ....Np , d=1, 2, ......, Ng

Where Np is the number of particles, Ng number of
dimensions in a particle, Vkid is the velocity of the i-th
particle in k-th iteration, w is weight parameter, c1 and c2
are constants, r1 and r2 are random numbers generated in the
range [0, 1] and Xkid is the position of the i-th particle in k-th
iteration.
The updated velocity based on which the position of each
particle is changed and the modified position is expressed is
expressed as [28, 29]:

Xidk+1 = Xidk + Vidk+1

(7)

The considered values of different parameters are based

on the experiment with different values and values for
obtaining best result. Here, c1 & c2 both are taken as 1.49
and w in the range [0.5, 1.0] to obtain the best result for
present problem.
V. DEGRADATION MODELING APPROACH
Degradation of the system components affects the system
performance largely. Therefore, it is very essential to
consider the effect of degradation to design the system more
accurately and for more real world presentation. There are
many research works reported on the techno-economic
feasibility analysis of the hybrid system but none of them
included the effect of power output degradation issue over
the lifetime of the components. But recently, integration of
degradation features into the technical and economic analysis
of the hybrid system is getting attention from the researchers
[30, 31]. Two different approaches may define the
degradation issue [31]. First approach takes the lifetime of
the component into account while considering the
performance of the component constant over that lifetime.
The second approach considers the degradation of
performance over the time whereas lifetime remains
constant. The first approach directly affects the cost of the

system whereas second approach affects the performance of

the component which in turn affects the cost of the system.
This feature is incorporated component wise and this
consideration will vary for each component and the real time
management of each component will be required for
successful implementation of the feature.
VI. RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE STUDY
The PSO algorithm is applied while performing the
optimization of the system and for determination of the cost
and optimized sizing. MATLAB code is generated for this
purpose. The algorithm is started with the assigning random
values for wind and solar numbers for pre-defined
populations and combination of the wind, solar, fuel cell,
electrolyzer, tank and cost is represented by each swarms
and their position gives the possible solution of the
optimization problem. The merit of the solution is
determined by the cost function given in Eq. (3). The new
velocity and position are updated according to Eq. (6) and
(7) in each iteration and accordingly cost changes. The
optimal sizing obtained is presented in Table I. After
considering the effect, simulation results are presented I n
Table II.
TABLE I.

OPTIMAL CAPACITY AND COST RESULTS FOR HYBRID

SYSTEM (CASE-I: WITHOUT DEGRADATION)

Component

Optimal Sizing
(No. of Units)

Wind Turbine
9
Solar Panel
1
Converter
3
Fuel Cell
3
Electrolyser
9
Hydrogen Tank
4
Net Present Cost (NPC): Rs. 39105.07k
Cost of Generation (GC): Rs. 11.70/kWh
Energy Cost (COE): Rs. 15.96/kWh

TABLE II.

Capacity
(kW)
90
0.15
15
15
9
4 kg.

OPTIMAL CAPACITY AND COST RESULTS FOR HYBRID

SYSTEM (CASE-II: WITH DEGRADATION)

Component

Optimal Sizing
(No. of Units)

Wind Turbine
10
Solar Panel
56
Converter
4
Fuel Cell
4
Electrolyser
14
Hydrogen Tank
4
Net Present Cost (NPC): Rs. 47744.41k
Cost of Generation (GC): Rs. 14.64 /kWh
Energy Cost (COE): Rs. 19.50 /kWh

Capacity
(kW)
100
8.4
20
20
14
4 kg.

The optimal cost of the hybrid system after considering

the degradation effect is presented in Fig. 3.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This present work is carried out with the financial
assistance from Departmental Research Scheme (DRS) &
UPE-II of University Grants Commission (UGC), GoI.
REFERENCES

Fig.3. Comparative cost parameters considering degradation

From above table, the optimal capacity for considered

system consists of 90 kW of Wind, 0.15 kW of solar PV, 15
kW of Converter, 15 kW of fuel cell, 9 kW of Electrolyzer
and 4 kg of hydrogen tank. The optimal cost of energy and
generation cost are Rs. 15.94 and Rs. 11.7 respectively.
Whereas in case II where degradation feature is incorporated,
the system optimal sizing as well as cost changes and for the
same system power output is less and cost is more. Case-II
chooses the hybrid system of 100 kW of wind and 8.4 kW of
solar instead of 0.15 kW and accordingly costs change.
PSO is widely used algorithm for obtaining optimized
results. Here also we have applied the PSO techniques
considering the algorithm a benchmark in solving these types
of problems. Fig. 4 shows the net present cost vs. number of
iteration graph. It shows that PSO is efficient to provide the
global solution for the optimization problem.
6.95

x 10

NPC vs. No. of Itr.

6.9
6.85

NPC

6.8
6.75
6.7
6.65
6.6
6.55
6.5

10

20

30

40

50

No. of Itr.

Fig.4. NPC vs. iterations for particle swarm optimization.

VII. CONCLUSION
The present paper highlights the optimized results for the
hybrid system considering the degradation effect of the
system components for a specific stand-alone site with the
help of PSO. The system is designed and optimized
depending on specific site and its characteristic. The
performance of the system is analyzed closely under the
two scenarios and it is observed that the system sizing
changes if we consider the degradation effect and cost of
the system is increased as well. This reflects the real
world system more closely and it will help researchers and
engineers to take right decision while implementing the
system in real world.

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