Multi-Criteria Rank-Based Planning of the Distribution System with HOMER Integrated Weighted Sum Model

The integration of renewable energy into distribution systems has attracted global planners to deploy cost-efficient electric power distribution systems. This paper proposes novel distribution system planning with multi-criteria rank-based methodology. The planning incorporates cost, renewable energy contribution, and grid energy trading as a planning index. The system is first analyzed with HOMER to obtain the list of suitable combinations with the available resources and load demand. In the second step, the weighted sum model is applied to rearrange the obtained solution in a rank-wise manner. The proposed methodology provides the optimum configurations along with the global best solution with the rank-wise arrangement. The proposed method is applied with the meteorological data of Roorkee city to explore the efficient configuration suited for the distributed power system. The optimum configuration obtained is PV array with DG and a converter. Further, if WT is the choice of the planner, the size of PV array and DG can be reduced, and a 3-kW size of WT can be deployed. The proposed method efficiently explores the possible optimum solutions along with the global best solution with rank-wise arrangement for efficient and economical planning of the distribution systems.