Abstract
This paper presents an optimization model to design hybrid renewable energy systems consisting of wind turbines, photovoltaic modules, batteries, controllers and inverters. A new computer program has been designed to simulate the optimization model. The main function of the new proposed computer program is to determine the optimum size of each component of the hybrid energy system for the lowest price of kWh generated and the best loss of load probability. To use this model, a data bank is required where detailed specifications and cost of the equipment must be available. It must also include the wind speed, solar radiation data for the desired site, and hourly load power with several numbers of wind turbine and PV module types to get the optimum size of each component and the minimum cost of kWh generated at highest reliability. The proposed computer program changes the penetration ratio of wind/PV with certain increments and calculates the required size of all components and the optimum battery size to get the predefined lowest acceptable probability. This computer program has been designed in flexible fashion that is not available in market available software like HOMER and RETScreen. Actual data for Saudi sites have been used with this computer program. The data obtained have been compared with the market available software. The comparison shows the superiority of this computer program in the optimal design of the autonomous PV/wind/battery hybrid system. The proposed computer program performed the optimal design steps in very short time and with accurate results. Many valuable results can be extracted from this computer program that can help researchers and decision makers.