Abstract
Reliability, availability, and cost have been the major concerns for photovoltaic hybrid systems since their beginning as primary sources for much critical applications like communication units and repeaters. This paper descnbes the performance of two hybrid systems, photovoltaic-battery, wind-turbine coupled with the public-grid (PVBWG) hybrid system and photovoltaic-battery, wind-turbine coupled With the diesel generator (PVBWD) hybrid system The systems are sized to power a typical 300W/48V de telecommunication load continuously throughout the year Such hybrid systems consist of subsystems, which in turn consist of components Failure of anyone of these components may cause failure of the entire system. The reliability and availability basics, and estimation procedure for the two proposals are introduced also in this paper. The PVBWG and PVBWD system configurations are shown with the relevant mean-time-between-faIlure (MTBF) and failure rate (${\lambda}$) of each component. The characteristics equations of the two systems are deduced as a function of operating hours and the percentage of sun and wind availabilities per day. The system probability failure as well as the reliability is estimated based on the fault tree analysis technique. The results show that, by using standard or normal components MTBF, the PVBWG is more reliable and the time of periodic maintenance period is more than one year especially in the rich sites of both sun and wind, but PVBWD competes else Also, in the first five years from the system installation, the system is quit reliable and may not require any maintenance. The results show also, as the sun and wind are available, as the system reliable and available.