Optimal Sizing and Energy Management of an Off-Grid Hybrid Solar-Wind-Diesel-Battery System for Residential Electricity and Freshwater in Saudi Arabia

The integration of renewable energy sources (RES) into hybrid energy systems (HRES) is crucial for addressing the growing energy and water demands in remote and off-grid communities, particularly in arid regions. This study focuses on optimizing an off-grid HRES to provide reliable electricity and freshwater for a coastal residential community in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The system combines solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, wind turbines (WT), diesel generators (DG), battery storage, and a reverse osmosis desalination plant (ROD) to ensure sustainable energy and water supply. Three configurations, PV/DG/Battery/ROD, WT/DG/Battery/ROD, and PV/WT/DG/Battery/ROD, are evaluated by three recent optimization approaches: electric eel foraging optimization (EEFO), educational competition optimizer (ECO), and parrot optimizer (PO). The goal of the optimization problem is minimizing the annual cost while maximizing system reliability, considering performance parameters, such as cost of energy (COE), loss of power supply probability (LPSP), and excess energy. A comparative analysis has been executed over 50 independent trials per algorithm, considering mean, standard deviation, and efficiency. Results reveal that EEFO performs better than ECO and PO, achieving minimum COE, LPSP, and excess energy in the PV-WT-DG-Battery-ROD system. The system achieved maximum performance regarding cost efficiency, dependability, and utilization of power. Besides, EEFO performs better than ECO and PO, achieving faster convergence speed, stability, and accuracy.