An Overview of Configurations and Dispatch Strategies in Hybrid Energy Systems

Growing concern about the exhaustibility of fossil fuel, in addition to its harmful effect on the environment, has led to a rise in the involvement of renewable sources such as solar and wind in energy production. Although these sources are sustainable and environmentally friendly, they are also intermittent by nature, varying depending on the weather. As a result, the power available to loads can be unpredictable. Therefore, a single renewable energy generator may not consistently meet the energy demand of a given geographic location. This uncertainty can be minimized by an optimal combination of different but complementary renewable energy resources. However, integrating multiple generation units, with different output characteristics, adds complexity to the renewable energy system operations; therefore, a proper energy management strategy (EMS) is necessary to ensure optimum utilization of renewable sources and cost-effectively meet energy demand. Significant approaches adopted in past literature on configurations discussed and a combined dispatch strategy suitable for renewable energy systems connected to an unreliable grid is proposed in this paper.