Proceedings of the 2015 2nd International
Symposium on Physics and Technology of Sensors,
8-10th March, 2015, Pune, India
Multisensor Data Fusion for Parametric Evaluation
and Optimization of Hybrid Solar and Wave
Power Source
Asha Luckins
Research Scholar, Electrical Engineering Department,
IIT Bombay
Mumbai, India
ashaluckins@gmail.com
AbstractThis paper briefly explains the requirement of
having reliable hybrid renewable energy sources for the
sustainability of energy security of the grid. The wave parameters
affecting electrical power potential of ocean waves and how these
parameters are being sensed is being studied. Also the causes of
waves are also discussed and these parameters are examined as
well. A hybrid system with WECS and PV system is also studied
and the power potential is analyzed. A simple algorithm has been
proposed to select the renewable source so that maximum
efficiency is achieved.
KeywordsWave Energy Converters(WECS); Hybrid WECS
and PV systems;Sensors
I. INTRODUCTION
Identification of reliable and promising renewable energy
resources is essential in view of fossil fuel depletion as well as
constraints in supply. Wave power is widely available near the
coast where most of the global population is concentrated.
Developing near-shore power sources will also reduce losses
associated with long distance transmission. Wave Energy
Converters (WEC) converts the transport energy from ocean
surface waves to electricity. The wave power generation
potential depends on significant wave height and wave period.
Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) systems also offer clean,
renewable energy even power generation depends on available
solar energy which may fluctuate due to presence of clouds in
daytime. A hybrid renewable energy system which has both
solar and WEC can be beneficial in providing predictable and
reliable energy.
For identifying a suitable WEC farm site, extensive studies
are required. Wave data available will be generally a collection
of significant wave heights and period of a particular site. The
model obtained using this only this data neither can represent
the high energetic wave behavior, nor account to other
environmental parameters. In this paper, we propose to
incorporate the wind pattern parameters in the modeling of the
Wave power potential, so that we can obtain a more
comprehensive model.
We are utilizing multi-sensor data fusion to model wave
power output as a function of parameters like wind speed,
ambient temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, sea water
temperature and directional acceleration. The parameters are
used to predict the significant wave heights, periods and
978-1-4673-8018-8/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE
Siddhartha P. Duttagupta
Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering Department,
IIT Bombay
Mumbai, India
sdgupta@ee.iitb.ac.in
velocity of surface waves. In parallel we also propose to utilize
multi-sensor data fusion to model solar photovoltaic power
output as a function of parameters like non-uniform
illumination, module temperature and airborne particulate
concentration.
An algorithm has been proposed for maximum power
extraction in the hybrid wave and solar power system. A
controller is used to optimally extract power from individual
sources. The sensor outputs are continuously monitored by the
controller algorithm to review the amount of power generated
and it uses a switching logic to select the renewable source to
be used and to what extent, so that optimum power is
generated.
II. WAVE POWER RESOURCE POTENTIAL
A. Equation for Electrical wave power potential
The power which can be extracted from waves in kW/m
can be expressed as shown in the formula below[1]
where
is the density of ocean water with value 1025 kg/m3,g is
the acceleration due to gravity(9.81m/s2) and mn is the nth
spectral moment
With respect to Significant wave height,Hs and time period
Ts, equation no: 1 can be rewritten as
Ts
The variation of Power with Hs and Ts is shown in Figure 1
B. Relationship with wind and wave
Wave motion can be predicted by studying the
process of evolution of waves with respect to interaction of
changing wind fields on the ocean surface. We are
assuming that, the only source of energy for the formation
of waves is the wind. The assumption is true in normal
scenarios excluding natural calamities like Tsunami,
Cyclone, and Earthquake etc. The formation equations for
the waves are explained in [2] with the same assumption.
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Figure 1:Variation of wave power potential with time period and significant
wave height
Figure 2: wave height vs wind speed
To predict, wave characteristics from wind data, the
following simple procedure can be used
x Based on the fetch, wind speed and duration of
wave, find the wave height from wave forecasting
diagram
x Other characteristics can be found from
JONSWAP spectrum as follows. Peak frequency,
fp is given by,
Block diagram of the proposed Hybrid system with backup
Where Hm0 is the model wave height in meters
which can be approximated to significant wave
height. The model period Tp=1/fp.
x Approximating,
TsTp
The simplified approximate variation of wave height with
respect to wind speed is given in Figure 2.
III. SOLAR POWER POTENTIAL
The Energy potential for PV panels can be
represented as follows[3]
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Figure 3: Variation of solar energy with respect to irradiance, temperature
losses and dust and snow losses
Where E = Energy (kWh), A = Total solar panel Area
(m), r = solar panel yield (%),H = Annual average
irradiation on tilted panels, PR = Performance ratio,
coefficient for losses (range between 0.9 and 0.5)
The variation Energy with respect to irradiance,
temperature losses, dust and snow losses is in Figure 3.
IV. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE HYBRID SYSTEM
battery storage is given in Figure 4.
The hybrid system has three parts. The first one is the PV
array with a DC-DC converter. The PV array is controlled by
MPPT algorithm to ensure maximum power transfer. Second
one is the wave energy converter with a convenient generator
based on the power take off mechanism (PTO) of the
particular wave energy converter[3]. Since the hybrid system
is completely renewable, a backup battery bank is also
required to meet the load demands.
V. ALGORITHM USED FOR DEVELOPING AN ACCURATE HYBRID
MODEL
An algorithm can be developed by sensing the various
parameters involved in both solar and WEC system.

Figure 4: Block diagram of hybrid system
. sensors. In capacitive wave height sensor, the inherent
Historic data of wave parameters is used to create wind
model. Also the real time values are sensed, and the model is
compared with the sensed values and appropriate corrections
are made in the developed wind model. The wind model
developed is used to predict the wave parameter values.
Simultaneously, the wave parameters are measured real time.
With the real time values, modifications are made the
developed wave model. Using the wave parameters predicted
according to the adapted model, the electrical power potential
is calculated. Concurrently, the solar module parameters are
sensed and solar power potential is calculated. Both calculated
power potentials are given to a controller algorithm which will
decide the operating conditions of both systems
A. Sensors used in the Hybrid system
Table 1: List of sensors used in the Hybrid system
B. Measuring wave parameters
For all parameter in the hybrid system, other than wave height
and wave period, the sensor technology is well understood and
the sensors are readily available in market. For measuring
wave height, we can use capacitive, pressure and ultrasonic
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Figure 5: Modeling the hybrid system
property of dielectric of the sea water is used to measure the
capacitance accurately, which can be used to measure the
wave height. The disadvantage of this method is that, the
distance between the capacitor and the other measuring
instruments should be really close, or we will not get accurate
wave height.
Since water is heavier than water, the pressure difference
in a water column can be effectively used to measure the wave
height. The disadvantage with this sensor is that, this has to be
submerged in water. Ultrasonic sensor have 4 parts, namely
transmitter which will send a particular frequency of
ultrasonic waves, receiver, micro controller to calculate the
time interval between sending and receiving the signals and
power supply.
Field measurement with ultrasonic sensor can sense, wave
period as well. Accelerometer devices can also used for
measuring wave period. Also a GPS device can be mounted to
each buoy to measure the wave period.
VI. CONTROLLER ALGORITHM FOR SLECTING THE RENEWBLE
SOURCE
From, the hybrid model developed in section V, the power
potential from both wave and PV systems is passed to a
controller. The energy situation can be either of the 4
situations
The control algorithm given in Figure 6. can be used
to ensure maximum reliability to the system.
Table 2 : Situations possible with hybrid system. L means Low power, H
means High power
 VII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The electrical power potentials for both WECS and
solar power systems were calculated and the parameters
affecting the performance were studied. The sensors used to
measure those parameters are reviewed and based on the
sensor data available, wave modeling algorithm has been
proposed. The model is used to select between both renewable
sources at various conditions of operation. Future work
involved the modeling of the hybrid systems with varying the
parameters and using available data sets
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Ms. Luckins acknowledges and thanks, INSPIRE, Department
of Science and technology, India for Research fellowship.
REFERENCES

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