This paper presents an artificial bee colony (ABC) based algorithm to optimally allocate, design
and schedule hybrid photovoltaic-diesel distributed generation in distribution systems. The
objective of the proposed algorithm is to minimize the overall investment, replacement and
operation and maintenance costs of each component of the hybrid photovoltaic-diesel systems
(HPVDS). The algorithm considers also the minimization of the distribution system power loss,
the amount of un-served load and the imported power from the transmission grid. Meanwhile, the
algorithm aims to maximize the excess generated power by the HPVDS that may be injected into
the distribution network. These objectives are to be achieved while satisfying the operational
constraints of the system. The proposed algorithm is applied to two test systems to validate its
effectiveness.