Operational strategy and capacity optimization of standalone solar-wind-biomass-fuel cell energy system using hybrid LF-SSA algorithms

This paper presents a framework for the efficient design and evaluation of a standalone hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) to meet the energy requirements of a rural community in the north-eastern region of Nigeria. The proposed microgrid system incorporates solar photovoltaic, wind turbines, biomass gasifier, fuel cell, and Battery storage. The sizing of each component is determined through the utilization of real local meteorological data and the load demand over a year, employing the Levy flight-salp swarm algorithms (LF-SSA). The optimization objective is to minimize the annualized system cost (ASC) of the HRES, while also considering the reliability constraint of Loss of power supply probability (LPSP). The comparative outcomes demonstrate that the LF-SSA surpasses other examined algorithms, namely the salp swarm, genetic algorithm, and HOMER software by achieving substantial cost savings of $29033, $50796, $191771 respectively in relation to the proposed HRES. The result further shows that, the LF-SSA provides the lowest LCOE of $0.933162/kWh, in contrast to SSA at $0.947737/kWh, GA at $0.958660/kWh, and HOMER at $1.075351/kWh. Additionally, the results indicate that the implemented Energy Management System (EMS) has successfully facilitated the establishment of an environmentally friendly and cost-effective energy system.