Optimum sizing of hydrokinetic turbine integrated photovoltaic-battery system incorporating uncertainties of resources

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hydrokinetic turbines (HKT’s) are used to produce power from the kinetic energy of the river current. A hydrokinetic turbine, when combined with a photovoltaic (PV)-battery system is an excellent option for the electrification of isolated communities residing at the banks of a river or a canal system. A methodology for the optimum sizing of an HKT-PV-battery system for remote electrification incorporating the uncertainty associated with power produced by the PV modules and hydrokinetic turbines is proposed. The entire set of feasible design options known as design space is identified for the HKT-PV-battery system using a deterministic as well as probabilistic approach. For a given load demand an HKT-PV- battery system with two HKT’s is identified as the overall optimum configuration when the deterministic approach is applied. Chance-constrained programming is utilized to incorporate the uncertainty in power from renewable sources. Sizing curves are generated at a specified confidence level by varying the number of hydrokinetic turbines. The lowest cost of energy is observed for an HKT-battery system with three HKTs irrespective of all reliability values considered. The methodology is validated using the Monte Carlo simulation approach with the help of illustrative examples. The optimum configuration at each confidence level is selected based on the cost of energy.