ANN-based GA for generating the sizing curve of stand-alone photovoltaic systems

Recent advances in artificial intelligence techniques have allowed the application of such technologies in real engineering problems. In this paper, an artificial neural network-based genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) model was developed for generating the sizing curve of stand-alone photovoltaic (SAPV) systems. Due to the high computing time needed for generating the sizing curves and complex architecture of the neural networks, the genetic algorithm is used in order to find the optimal architecture of the ANN (number of hidden layers and the number of neurons within each hidden layer). Firstly, a numerical method is used for generating the sizing curves for different loss of load probability (LLP) corresponding to 40 sites located in Algeria. The inputs of ANN-GA are the geographical coordinates and the LLP while the output is the sizing curve represented by C(A) = f(C(s)) (i.e., 30-points were taken from each sizing curve). Subsequently, the proposed ANN-GA model has been trained by using a set of 36 sites, whereas data for 4 sites (randomly selected) which are not included in the training dataset have been used for testing the ANN-GA model. The results obtained are compared and tested with those of the numerical method in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.