Optimum load management strategy for wind/diesel/battery hybrid power systems

This paper discusses a novel load management strategy for the optimal use of renewable energy in systems with wind turbines, a battery bank, and a diesel generator. Using predictions concerning wind speed and power, controllable loads are used to minimize the energy supplied by the diesel generator and battery bank, subject to constraints imposed by the user’s behavior and duty cycle of the appliances. We analyzed a small hybrid power system in Zaragoza, Spain, and the results showed load management strategy allowed improvement in the wind power use by shifting controllable loads to wind power peaks, increasing the state of the charge in the battery bank, and reducing the diesel generator operating time, when compared to a case without load management.

► This paper presents a load management strategy for wind/diesel/battery systems.
► The strategy uses predictions concerning the wind speed and power.
► Controllable loads are used to reduce the use of the diesel generator and batteries.
► We apply, successfully, the novel strategy to a case study.
► The results show that the strategy reaches better results than load following one.