The quantitative techno-economic comparisons and multi-objective capacity optimization of wind-photovoltaic hybrid power system considering different energy storage technologies

Highlights: • Quantitative techno-economic comparisons of energy storages are conducted. • Operation characteristics of devices are considered in capacity optimization. • Comprehensive performance metrics of multi-objective algorithms are proposed. • Sensibility analysis of different load profile and resources level are conducted. • Thermal energy storage is the most cost-effective energy storage alternative. To provide investors with a selection method of energy storage technology, this paper proposes a quantitative techno-economic comparison method of battery, thermal energy storage, pumped hydro storage and hydrogen storage in wind-photovoltaic hybrid power system from the perspective of multi-objective capacity optimization. The multi-objective capacity optimization models are developed based on minimizing the levelized cost of energy (economy) and loss of power supply probability (reliability) simultaneously. Comprehensive metrics based on hypervolume are proposed to compare the performance of four multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. Moreover, the operation characteristics of devices is considered in the model to improve the simulation accuracy. The performance comparisons of algorithms show that the average rank of nondominated sorting genetic algorithm, multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition, multi-objective particle swarm optimization and strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm are 2.8, 3.6, 1.8 and 1.8 respectively, which demonstrates that multi-objective particle swarm optimization and strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm have relatively better overall performance when applied in capacity optimization problems. The quantitative techno-economic comparisons of energy storage show that the levelized cost of energy of thermal energy storage, battery, hydrogen storage and pumped hydro storage under the same reliability are 0.1224 $/kWh, 0.1812 $/kWh, 0.1863 $/kWh and 0.2225 $/kWh respectively, which demonstrates that thermal energy storage is the most cost-effective alternative. Furthermore, the sensibility analysis demonstrates that thermal energy storage is always the most cost-effective alternative for different load profile, different resources level and different energy storage cost. Finally, the conclusions can help investors to select a cost-effective and reliable energy storage technology.