Optimal Economic Dispatch of Power System Networks with Renewable Energy Sources

This paper compares between different types of batteries of a grid-connected hybrid power system that utilizes renewable energy sources (PV and Wind Turbines). The hybrid system is located in Yanbu region in Saudi Arabia. Part of the vision of 2030 of Saudi Arabia is to use renewable energy sources to cover a portion of the total electricity production. The required energy to be produced by renewable energy sources is 850 MW for the vision of 2030. To meet such a requirement, a thorough study is carried out to investigate a potential solution. The purpose of this study is to design a hybrid system which contains battery storage and has the lowest cost. Ten different batteries were used for a comparison study to examine the hybrid system with the lowest cost. Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software was used to design the hybrid system. HOMER provides real time evaluation of power systems. The criteria used for decision making purpose are the net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of energy (COE), electricity production, initial capital cost, nominal battery capacity, and battery autonomy. The results indicate that the hybrid system with Zinc Bromine flow battery (electrochemical type) has the lowest cost.