Heuristic optimization of state-of-charge feedback controller parameters for output power dispatch of hybrid photovoltaic/battery energy storage system

•Hourly output power dispatch strategy for PV/BES system is developed.•Optimal SOC-FB control scheme that uses GA, GSA and PSO is proposed.•Simulation is carried out in Matlab and PSCAD/EMTDC using improved BES model.•The proposed optimal SOC-FB controller has efficiency up to 90%.•Optimum size of BES also has been obtained.

Output power fluctuation of photovoltaic (PV) sources is a problem of practical significance to utilities. To mitigate its impacts, particularly on a weak electricity network, a battery energy storage (BES) system can be used to smooth out and dispatch the output to the utility grid on an hourly basis. This paper presents an optimal control strategy of BES state-of-charge feedback (SOC-FB) control scheme used for output power dispatch of PV farm. The SOC-FB control parameters are optimized by using heuristic optimization techniques such as genetic algorithm (GA), gravitational search algorithm (GSA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) in Matlab. In addition, an improved BES model is developed in PSCAD/EMTDC software package, in which GA is used to evaluate the optimal parameters. The studied multi-objective optimization problem also considers the evaluation of the optimal size of the BES. The performance of the proposed optimal SOC-FB control scheme is validated by comparing the results obtained from Matlab and PSCAD/EMTDC and with results from previous works. Finally, the best set of parameters are used to further validate the proposed method by using data obtained from the actual output of a grid-connected PV system.