Optimizing preventive maintenance for hybrid renewable energy systems: A production-driven approach

A combination of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine (WT) systems is among the most widely used hybrid energy systems for electrical energy production. For these energy production systems to operate efficiently and reliably, proper maintenance is essential to prevent unexpected shutdowns. This study presents an optimized production and maintenance planning framework for hybrid solar photovoltaic and wind turbine systems, aiming to minimize total production and maintenance costs while maintaining high system reliability and availability. By leveraging the failure rates of the PV and wind turbine components for degradation modeling based on energy production, the proposed model strategically schedules preventive maintenance actions to balance cost-efficiency and operational performance. In this study, the Cox proportional hazards model is used to integrate energy production rate into maintenance planning, thereby enabling assessment of the impact of energy generation on subsystem deterioration. By adopting the perfect maintenance approach, the proposed model extends the hybrid system’s lifespan and optimizes its performance under varying operational conditions. The optimization results reveal that the proposed model achieves an optimal preventive maintenance configuration involving two maintenance actions at the 6th and 12th operational periods, minimizing the total maintenance cost to 986 NGN. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates the model’s adaptability: increasing the corrective cost to 2500 NGN prompted adjustments to three maintenance actions, raising the total cost moderately to 1153 NGN while preserving high reliability. This resulted in a 41.18% reduction in total costs compared to purely corrective maintenance under the same cost conditions. By introducing a cost-effective framework, this research contributes to the field of hybrid renewable energy systems by improving maintenance planning. The findings highlight the importance of a preventive maintenance strategy in achieving sustainable energy production, reducing costs, and enhancing the system’s lifespan. A numerical study and a sensitivity analysis are conducted to evaluate the model’s effectiveness in ensuring economic viability and reliable system performance.