Abstract

In this study, a simple and practical control scheme for power assignment and load-following of a Hybrid Power System (HPS) is proposed. The system consists of Photovoltaic (PV), Fuel Cell (FC), Super-Capacitor (SC), dc load, ac load and different kinds of converters. PV is chosen as a prior source, which normally operates in Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) mode. In order to achieve 24 h power supply under various natural conditions, FC is used as a backup source to provide the power deficit between solar generation and load demand. Taking the slow FC system dynamics into account, FC power slope has been limited to protect FC from fuel starvation, whereas SC is chosen to satisfy the requirement of the sudden load and solar radiation changes. Besides, a V/f controller is designed to meet ac load demand, while keeping the voltage and frequency within an acceptable range. All the details of this study, including system structure, control diagrams and MATLAB simulation results, are presented.

Keywords:

Fuel cell, hybrid power system, photovoltaic, super-capacitor, V/f control,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.