Decentralized Autonomous Hybrid Renewable Power Generation

Table 3

Optimization tools for hybrid RES study.

Tool	Year	Developer	Merits	Demerits	References
HOMER	2000	National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)	Allows comparison between DC and AC coupled systems	Cannot enable user to intuitively select appropriate system components	[162]
HYBRID2	1996	Renewable Energy Research Laboratory (RERL)	Allows very detailed analysis for energy sources, system architectures, and dispatch strategies	Does not consider short term system fluctuation due to system dynamics or component transients, not suitable for economic and multiobjective optimization	[163]
HOGA	2005	Electrical Engineering Department (University of Zaragoza, Spain)	Carried out by gas; can be single or multi objective; can evaluate all possible combinations for components and control variable strategies	Not suitable for economic optimization	[164]
HYDROGEMS	1995	Institute for Energy Technology, (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim)	Used to analyze performance of hydrogen energy systems; simulate hydrogen mass flows; and estimate electrical power flow in standalone and hybrid generation system	Now merged with TRANSYS	[165]
HYBRIDS	—	Solaris Homes	Comprehensive in terms of optimization variables; require higher level of knowledge of system configurations	Only simulates one configuration at a time	[166]
RETScreen	1997	Canadian Government (Ministry of Natural Resources)	Supports basic dimensioning calculations for PV-diesel off-grid systems preliminary feasibility study and general dimensioning	Limits available options for energy sources, system architectures, and dispatch strategies	[167]
PV-SPS	2001	Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE)	Consumption and power generation give a good general impression of system performance over course of the year	Layout of generator input form is not always optimal in terms of clarity, even after feeding PV irradiation, temperature, generator size, values of shiny and cloudy months, annual mean value, and so forth	[167]
PVSOL	1998	Energy Software, Berlin,; Germany	Time step simulation program for off-grid and grid coupled solar generation systems; capable of performing energy calculations, analysis of economic efficiency, and analysis of influences of shadowing	Limits available options for energy sources, system architectures, and dispatch strategies	[167]
TRNSYS	1975	University of Wisconsin-Solar Energy Laboratory	Provides customized performance simulation by splitting entire energy system into individual components	Does not include nuclear, wave, tidal, and hydro power. It includes BES as only electrical energy storage.	[168]
MATLAB/Simulink	1970	MathWorks	Allows much more flexibility in defining energy sources, system architectures, and dispatch strategies	More effort to learn software and develop models	[169]
Dymola	1978	Lund Institute of Technology (Lund University)	Allows much more flexibility in defining energy sources, system architectures, and dispatch strategies	More effort to learn software and develop models	[170]
PVsyst	1994	University of Geneva, Switzerland	Provides dimensioning proposals for standalone installations (PV and battery size) and warns user if chosen component combinations are not technically feasible	No inverter models for off-grid system simulation; only DC modeling is possible	[171]
ViPOR		NREL	Can decide power supply distribution layout for loads such as houses and minigrid	Able to access local loads and needs skilled labors.	[167]
PV-DesignPro	1998	Maui Solar Energy Software Corporation in Hawaii, USA	Designed to simulate both grid coupled and off-grid systems with PV and wind generators	Additional generator (e.g., diesel generator) is used to match the shortfalls; that is, realistic additional generator cannot be modeled	[167]

Other reported tools are Jpelect, PV-DesignPro, PowerSim, Off Grid Pro, Power Factory, Off Grid Sizer, Sunny Island Design, TALCO, INSEL, ARES, RAPSIM, SOMES, SOLSIM, Simplorer, Solar Pro, and HSWSO (Hybrid Solar-Wind System Optimization Sizing).