Capacity planning and practicality evaluation of grid-independent power system based on supply reliability

2 This paper presents a methodology for performing capacity planning of a grid‐independent power system, which is mainly composed of PV panels, small wind turbines, fuel cell systems, and batteries. The methodology aims at finding the optimal capacities of these power sources to meet the required system supply reliability, with the lowest value of the levelized cost of energy. As the first step in capacity planning, mathematical models for characterizing PV panels, wind turbines, and batteries are proposed. The second step is to optimize the capacities of the power sources according to the Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP) and the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCE) concepts. The configurations which meet the required LPSP with the lowest LCE, give the optimal choices. The surveyed meteorological data and energy demand data of an apartment in Kanto area are used in the capacity planning. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 181(2): 1–9, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.22288