Comparative study of metaheuristic algorithms for the optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy system for a rural hamlet in Nagaland, North East India

As per the Ministry of Power, Government of India, electrification has been achieved in every hamlet across India. However, North-Eastern areas of the nation still struggle to provide grid connection to individual residences. Topographical and economical variables cause higher technical and commercial losses. Nagaland has twice the national Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses. A Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) may meet local energy needs by meeting the expanding power demand. Hazadisa, a small community in Dimapur, Nagaland, has remarkable micro-hydroelectric producing potential. Evaluation of the runoff rate of the hydro system was conducted utilising the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) technique, with maximum and minimum runoff rates for the study region equal to 6.34 m $$^{3}$$ 3 /s and 0.066 m $$^{3}$$ 3 /s, respectively. According to meteorological data, the average solar irradiance and temperature in April and May are 5.32 kW/m $$^{2}$$ 2 and $$30.8^\circ $$ 30 . 8 ∘ C, respectively. A comprehensive set of twenty-three (23) newly developed and widely used methaheuristic optimisation methods have been employed to determine the optimal size of a hybrid PV-hydro system to cater to the energy demand. The effectiveness of an algorithm is assessed by the analysis of statistical studies, examination of convergence characteristics, evaluation of processing time, and assessment of robustness. The Grey Wolf Optimisation (GWO) method has been shown to have superior performance in solving the given optimisation problem at hand. The the best size for the Hybrid PV Hydro system is evaluated as 31.86 kW.Furthermore, the optimum electricity price was determined to be 6.41 INR/kWh.