Optimal power flow management for distributed energy resources with batteries

• A PV-diesel-battery hybrid system is proposed.
• Model minimizes fuel and battery wear costs.
• Power flows are analysed in a 24-h period.
• Results provide a practical platform for decision making.

This paper presents an optimal energy management model of a solar photovoltaic-diesel-battery hybrid power supply system for off-grid applications. The aim is to meet the load demand completely while satisfying the system constraints. The proposed model minimizes fuel and battery wear costs and finds the optimal power flow, taking into account photovoltaic power availability, battery bank state of charge and load power demand. The optimal solutions are compared for cases when the objectives are weighted equally and when a larger weight is assigned to battery wear. A considerable increase in system operational cost is observed in the latter case owing to the increased usage of the diesel generator. The results are important for decision makers, as they depict the optimal decisions considered in the presence of trade-offs between conflicting objectives.