SUMMARYThis paper describes a novel operating method using prediction of photovoltaic (PV) power for a photovoltaicdiesel hybrid power generation system. The system is composed of a PV array, a storage battery, a bidirectional inverter, and a diesel engine generator (DG). The proposed method enables the system to save fuel consumption by using PV energy effectively, reducing charge and discharge energy of the storage battery, and avoiding low-load operation of the DG. The PV power is simply predicted from a theoretical equation of solar radiation and the observed PV energy for a constant time before the prediction. The fuel consumption of the proposed method is compared with that of other methods by a simulation based on measurement data of the PV power at an actual PV generation system for 1 year. The simulation results indicate that the amount of fuel consumption of the proposed method is smaller than that of any other methods, and is close to that of the ideal operation of the DG.