A dSPACE-based Control of a Hybrid Renewable
Energy System with Wind and Photovoltaic Power
Abrez Mondal
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA
e-mail: mondal.14@osu.edu
Abstract In recent years, non-conventional sources of
energy such as wind and solar have gained increased attention as
viable means of power generation. This paper discusses a hybrid
scheme consisting of a permanent magnet synchronous generator
(PMSG)-based wind energy system and photovoltaic panels
which are integrated with a battery to store extra energy when
available and to meet additional power requirement during
shortage. The PV panel supplies the battery through a SEPIC
converter for maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The
PMSG supplies the battery through a boost converter which
regulates the output. The outputs of the wind and photovoltaic
systems share a common DC link through which the total power
from the hybrid system is fed to a three-phase load using an
inverter implementing space-vector pulse-width modulation (SV-
PWM). The controller modeled in MATLAB/Simulink software
is simple and is implemented through real-time simulation using
dSPACE board.
KeywordsPV panel; Maximum Power Point Tracking;
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator; Wind Energy
Conversion System; dc-dc converter; Space-vector pulse-width
Modulation
I. INTRODUCTION
The fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas are
regarded as the traditional sources for power generation. The
reserves for the conventional sources are depleting at an
alarming rate and are becoming expensive with time. These
fossil fuels in addition to their cost cause a significant amount
of pollution to the environment due to the emission of the
greenhouse gases during the energy conversion process. All the
above factors have led to the search for non-conventional
energy sources for power generation. Wind and solar energy
are considered important renewable energy sources owing to
their abundance and clean form.
Wind energy is one of the most environment friendly
sources of power generation. The wind energy generation can
be classified broadly as fixed-speed systems and variable-speed
systems. The more primitive wind turbines belonged to the
fixed-speed systems which were intended for operation at a
particular speed. Nowadays, the variable-speed systems are
used extensively as they offer better control options for
maintaining the power quality requirements. The popular
variable-speed wind energy systems increasing employ doubly-
fed induction generators (DFIGs) with a gearbox unit and an
Subbaraya Yuvarajan
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND, USA
e-mail: Subbaraya.Yuvarajan@ndsu.edu
additional power converter feeding the rotor circuit. The use of
permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs)
represents a further advancement in this area. The PMSG is
particularly suitable for low speed operation [1] and is more
efficient since it does not have any rotor field copper losses [2]
in the absence of any physical winding in the rotor circuit. The
output from the PMSG is a three-phase voltage which is
rectified, stepped up using a boost converter and finally
converted to a three-phase sinusoidal ac output voltage at grid
frequency before being fed into the grid.
This paper describes a hybrid renewable energy system
where both wind and photovoltaic energy act as power
generation sources. The system discussed here is a standalone
one and can be useful for power generation in remote areas.
The wind energy conversion system uses a PMSG for the
generator as discussed earlier while the photovoltaic system
consists of a dc-dc converter. The SEPIC converter topology is
chosen for dc-dc conversion of the photovoltaic output voltage
and the switching signal is generated using a maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) scheme [3-4] in order to maximize the
photovoltaic power output. Both the wind and photovoltaic
energy sources are integrated at a common dc link where a
battery is also incorporated into the system [5]. The battery acts
as an energy storage unit during additional power generation
from the two sources and also supplies power to the load
during periods when sunlight is unavailable. An energy storage
unit is essential in this kind of a power generation system since
the power available from both the sources is unpredictable. A
common dc link eliminates the necessity for two separate
inverters and a single three-phase inverter unit is used to feed
power to the loads. The three-phase inverter unit employs
space-vector pulse-width modulation (SV-PWM) technique for
generating the switching pulses and this results in a higher ac
output voltage as compared to the traditional sinusoidal pulse-
width modulation (SPWM) scheme. The salient feature of this
work is that the entire system is operated using computer-based
control through a single dSPACE controller board [6]. Since
the overall system does not involve any physical hardware
controllers, it is more flexible. The controller is modeled in
MATLAB-Simulink and is connected to the real system (plant)
through the CP1104 I/O board in dSPACE.
The remaining sections of the paper are structured as
follows: Section II describes the photovoltaic system along