HOMER software is a powerful tool for modeling and optimization of hybrid energy system (HES). The main two default control strategies in HOMER are load following (LF) and cycle charging (CC) strategies. In these strategies, the decision to use the generator or battery at each time step is made based on the lowest-cost choice. Therefore, these strategies are difficult to be implemented in practice especially in countries with continuous fuel price fluctuations. In this study, a new dispatch strategy based on HOMER-MATLAB Link Controller for an isolated wind/diesel/battery HES is proposed to overcome the limitations of the default HOMER strategies. A detailed technical, economic, and greenhouse gas emission analysis is presented for the system under LF, CC, and the proposed dispatch strategies. Besides offering more realistic optimization, the results show that the proposed strategy offers the best economic and environmental performance with a net present cost of $56473 and annual CO2 emissions of 6838 kg. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis reveals that the proposed strategy is not affected by the fuel price variation, in opposite to LF, and CC strategies which is affected dramatically by this variation. The findings are of paramount importance towards more realistic and efficient energy management strategies.
