Photovoltaic Output Power Fluctuations Smoothing by Selecting Optimal Capacity of Battery for a Photovoltaic-Diesel Hybrid System

Abstract This article explains a battery-based control method to reduce the photovoltaic output power fluctuations, which, in turn, will reduce the frequency deviations of the power system. The battery control method introduced here will maintain the state of charge near 50%. Therefore, it will increase the lifetime of the battery, as well as decreasing the maintenance cost. A local search algorithm is provided with this battery control method to search the optimal capacity of the battery required for smoothing the photovoltaic output power fluctuations. Then, a cost comparison is provided to realize the performance of the search algorithm. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, simulation results are presented using the actual insolation and load data.