A Novel Hybrid Solar-wind Energy Conversion System for Remote Area Electrification

Abstract

Background: Remote area electrification is a social responsibility that needs to be catered by research fraternity. One of the most viable technology as a solution, is the renewable energy source (RES) based power generation. However, RES is intermittent and thus, mostly ineffective without an energy storage device. Energy storage device comes at increased cost and may not be a cost-effective solution to the problem. Introduction: One solution that has been frequently proposed to reduce the intermittency of RES is hybridization. Hybridization of RES such as wind energy conversion system (WECS) with solar energy conversion system (SECS) is the most basic solution offered owing to their complementary nature. Therefore, this paper sees SECS in the role of supporting WECS in regions with highly intermittent wind conditions. In this paper, a novel technique of hybridization of WECS with SECS has been proposed. Method: The basic idea of the paper is to control the dc-link voltage from the generation side by regulating the power generated by RES as per load demand using minimum components. The underline principle is the relative lower time constant of solar panel and battery system in comparison to a wind turbine. Result: The experimental results on the proposed system shows that the SECS supports the WECS at higher wind turbulence and low wind conditions. Conclusion: This unique feature of the proposed system enables a WECS supported by a small rated SECS to attain high power reliability and thus, suitable for application such as remote area electrification.

Solar-Fuel cell based Islanded DC-Microgrid with hybrid Energy Storage Devices

“…Also, the drooping characteristic can be used very efficiently in a DC microgrid in identifying the power shortage/excess at the point of common coupling. Therefore, appropriate actions can be initiated to mitigate the same [1]. Therefore, no load prediction techniques have been used in the proposed system which decreases the cost of such systems.…”

“…The first objective of the proposed energy management system depends upon the drooping characteristic [1]. The V DC , can be given as in Eq.…”

“…Upon power excess in the system (I g > I L ), V DC starts increasing, and under power shortage in the system (I g < I L ), V DC starts decreasing. Therefore, just by controlling the V DC , the power balance in the system can be maintained [1].…”

“…However, the solar energy is intermittent. It is a popular convention to hybridize solar energy with another source of energy such as wind energy [1]. However, an energy storage device is highly required in, even a system with a hybrid source of energy for power reliability.…”

DC Motor Emulation of Wind Energy Conversion System

“…A rectifier bridge is utilized to rectify the generator AC output voltage to supply either DC loads or charging batteries [4,5]. The output power value from the rectifier bridge can be fed to an inverter to be modified as an AC source [6][7][8][9]. The best usage of this system is considered in remote areas [10][11][12] and can be connected to the utility grid to shares loads with the grid.…”