Optimal design of hybrid renewable energy system considering equipment performance and annual cost

Hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) is a promising way to promote the supply stability of renewable energy and reduce carbon emission. This paper focuses on designing a novel HRES with equipment type consideration. Multiple types of equipment can improve the flexibility and reliability of the HRES, meanwhile more types means higher investment and maintenance cost. The optimization of such system involves a large number of discrete variables and complex performance equations. To deal with this problem, A two-step approach is proposed in this study. The minimum total annual cost and minimum equipment types are set as the optimization goals. A group of Pareto sets are generated after optimization process. These results can help engineers evaluate the impact of multiple factors and assist them in decision-making.