In this paper, a particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based power dispatch algorithm is proposed to deal with the energy management problem of the hybrid generation system (HGS). For conventional PSO method, the search space is only defined by inequality constraints. However, as for power dispatch problems, it is vital to maintain power balance, which can be represented as an equality constraint. To address this issue, a roulette wheel re-distribution mechanism is proposed. With this re-distribution mechanism, unbalanced power can be reallocated to more superior element and the searching diversity can be preserved. In addition, the effect of depth of discharge on the life cycle of the battery bank is also taken into account by developing a penalty mechanism. The proposed method is then applied to a HGS consisting of photovoltaic array, wind turbine, microturbine, battery banks, utility grid and residential load. To validate the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed method, simulation results for a whole day will also be provided. Comparing with three other power dispatching methods, the proposed method can achieve the lowest accumulated cost. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.