Economic Operation of Diesel Generator in an Isolated Hybrid System with Pumped Hydro Storage

Hybrid energy system is generally a combination of renewable energy sources like photovoltaic, wind energy and micro-hydro generator. It is integrated with a diesel generator to solve power supply problems in remote places which are far from the grid. Hybrid system is also an economical solution for remote places where grid power availability is limited. The PV and wind energy sources are highly nature dependant and cannot meet the load demand for all times of a day. That is why it requires designing and developing a device to store energy and to meet the peak load demand. In this paper, micro-hydro pumped storage/generator plant has been considered to store the excess energy and also to generate whenever required. A diesel generator has been integrated with hybrid sources to meet the peak load demand. The saliency of this paper is to develop an operational methodology for the nonconventional sources to meet the load demand and to minimize the cost of power generation. A computer programme has been developed to achieve the minimum operational cost of diesel generator.