Hybrid Diesel Generator - battery systems for offgrid rural applications

This paper discusses the advantages of adding a battery storage system to isolated load not served by the grind and continuously running under a Diesel Generator. Even though adding batteries means increasing the Initial Cost of the system, the resulting Cost of Energy produced as well as the total Net Present Costs are sensibly being reduce while using the hybrid Diesel generator-battery system. HOMER is used to compare the technical, economical and environmental characteristics of the hybrid system to the stand alone diesel generator. Finally, the Cost of Energy produced as well as the total Net Present Costs can be further reduced by optimally sizing and applying optimal control strategies to the hybrid system. The decision variables as well as the objective function for the optimal sizing and operation control of the hybrid diesel generator-battery system have been proposed.