Power Regulation and Performance Optimization of PV-BES-FC HRES: A Case Study

Abstract

Abstract This research paper considers a real technical problem related to the economic performance evaluation of green energy generation with power regulation. A Photovoltaic (PV)-Battery Energy Storage (BES) and fuel Cell (FC) supported Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) provides electrical power with zero carbon emission. PV generators and FC systems are slow-responding energy sources and can't mitigate the peak load demand. The peak load stress reduces the efficiency and lifespan of the FC, and it is liable to instability for a slow-responding PV generator. Power regulation with load stress mitigation is of utmost importance for reliable operation. For this purpose, the addition of a fast-responding Energy Storage System (ESS), Batteries, and/or Supercapacitors, connected to the HRES is required. The performance of the combined operation of PV-ESS and FC should be well-regulated for the reliable working of the system. For this purpose, the design of a suitable controller is required to manage and regulate the power distribution with variable load, according to demand. This paper proposes a Proportional Integral (PI)- hybrid controller to regulate load stress while maintaining the power demand for PV-BES & FC supported RES during variable load. A case study of Visvesvaraya Bhawan (Hostel-10), National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra (NITK), Kurukshetra, India, with residing capacity of fifteen hundred students, is considered to verify the proposed approach governing the base load demand with peak load stress management. The HOMER Pro software is used for sizing and confirming the economic performance of the HRES. MATLAB simulated proposed control approach is verified on the Real-Time OPAL-RT platform.