Optimal Design and Economicanalysis of an Off-Grid Pv/Wind/Battery/Biomass System for Kunak City, Malaysia

Abstract

This work proposes a design of a hybrid power system including photovoltaic (PV) module, wind turbine, battery and biomass for Kunak city, Sabah in Malaysia. An optimum design of the stand-alone hybrid power system based on minimization of the total system cost during the project lifetime is obtained using Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) by considering the power supply to the load. In order to carry out this investigationfor a 10-year period (from 2004 to 2013), the cost function of PV, wind, battery and biomass are derived by deliberating local power demand, solar radiation, wind speed and site temperature data. The optimal system in this case study regarding to the outcome in 2013 is the combination of 73.8% PV module, 13.2% wind turbine, 13% battery and extra 24% biomass for unmet load with a total cost of USD $50,958,946 for 20 years and with 15 years and 4 months payback period. To show the functionality of the implemented method, a comparison between the results obtained using ICA, Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) and Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) software, is also made.