Abstract:
The present paper develops a model to optimize the daily operation of a hybrid energy system consisting
of a hydrokinetic, a pumped hydro storage system and diesel generator. The optimization approach is
aimed at minimizing the cost function subject to the availability of water resource, the variable load
requirements, and operational constraints of the hybrid system’s components. The main purpose of
the developed model is to minimize the daily amount of diesel fuel consumed to supply the load while
maximizing the use of the hydrokinetic operating in conjunction with the pumped hydro storage. For
simulation purposes, the hourly load demand, resource data for a selected rural area in South Africa have
been collected and used as an input to the developed model. The economic analysis has resulted in the
calculation of optimized daily operation cost of the proposed hybrid system in summer and winter conditions.
The obtained results demonstrate that a substantial reduction in the daily operation cost can be
achieved (88% in summer and 97% in winter) using the hybrid system compare to the case where the diesel
generator is used alone.
