Mustafa Fadel, Fajer Alelaj, H. Al-Sairfi, Mansour Ahmed
ABSTRACT There is an increasing shortage of water in dry and semiarid areas due to population growth, climate variability, and a lack of fresh water. Combining clean energy with desalination technology is an effective way to sustainably provide clean water in these areas, and this paper proposes a method for operating a renewable energy management system (EMS) with a combined wind turbine/battery‐powered reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system under these constraints. The RO will be modelled as a flexible electric load and water storage for buffering long‐term supply reliability. A detailed simulation of operations will be carried out using actual wind data from dry areas, similar to those in Kuwait and Iraq, under seasonal conditions. Two example scenarios will be studied: one for low‐wind (January) and another for high‐wind (July). The proposed EMS is evaluated against a conventional constant‐load baseline strategy using key performance indicators, including battery state‐of‐charge (SOC) stability, degradation index, wind energy utilisation, and freshwater production. Simulation studies have shown that the smart strategy method offers substantial improvements in a system's overall performance. For instance, in winter scenarios, this strategy reduces battery degradation by 49% while maintaining a comparable water volume from the facility. Similar improvements were observed during summer periods with high winds, with degradation reduced by 74%. The proposed strategy provided much greater stability in battery SOC variations and improved the operational lifespan of the batteries.