INTEGRATED RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF ARCHITECTURES, INTELLIGENT CONTROL, ENERGY MANAGEMENT, AND PERFORMANCE
Integrated renewable energy systems are increasingly important for achieving reliable low carbon energy supply, yet evidence remains fragmented across system architecture, enabling technologies, control, optimisation, and performance evaluation. This systematic review synthesised evidence on the design, operation, performance, and development of these systems. The literature search period spanned 2016 to 2026 and covered Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Wiley, SpringerLink, Emerald Insight, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar. Studies addressing integrated renewable configurations, including solar photovoltaic, wind, biomass, hydropower, batteries, hydrogen, electric vehicles, and smart grids, were screened using eligibility criteria, structured data extraction, and thematic synthesis. A total of 67 studies were retained, comprising 45 primary studies and 22 background references. The evidence showed a progression from stand alone photovoltaic, wind, and battery systems toward grid connected, hybrid AC and DC microgrids and multi carrier hubs. Battery storage remained central to balancing and reliability, while hydrogen provided potential for long duration storage and sector coupling. Control strategies evolved from conventional and fuzzy approaches toward predictive, distributed, multi agent, and artificial intelligence based energy management. Integrated systems generally improved reliability, power quality, renewable utilisation, economic efficiency, emissions performance, and resilience when generation, storage, conversion, and demand were effectively coordinated. However, performance depended on architecture, uncertainty treatment, battery degradation, converter stability, communication, scalability, cybersecurity, and market conditions. Future progress requires benchmarks, digital twins, hardware in the loop testing, uncertainty aware optimisation, hierarchical distributed control, AI validation, battery and hydrogen integration, electric vehicle flexibility, and market mechanisms that value resilience and flexibility.
Keywords: Integrated renewable energy systems; Renewable energy integration; Energy storage; Intelligent energy management; Smart grids
