Stand-alone hybrid systems have turned into one of the most promising ways to handle the electrification requirements of numerous isolated consumers worldwide. The proposed wind-diesel-battery hybrid system consists of a micro-wind converter, a small diesel-electric generator-basically operating as a back up energy production system-and a lead-acid battery bank that stores the wind energy surplus during high wind speed periods. In this context the present work is focused on presenting a detailed mathematical model describing the operational behavior of the basic hybrid system components, along with the representative calculation results based on the developed mathematical model. Accordingly, an integrated numerical algorithm is built to estimate the energy autonomy configuration of the hybrid system under investigation. Using the proposed numerical algorithm, the optimum configuration selection procedure is verified by carrying out an appropriate sensitivity analysis. The proposed methodology may equally well be applied to any other remote consumer and wind potential type, in order to estimate the optimum wind-diesel hybrid system configuration that guarantees long-term energy autonomy. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.