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Dual input, small power, PV and wind energy conversion system

Conference Paper · May 2012

DOI: 10.1109/OPTIM.2012.6231942

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 Dual Input, Small Power, PV and Wind
Energy Conversion System
Nicolae Muntean, Mihaela Gavris, Octavian Cornea
“POLITEHNICA” University of Timisoara, ROMANIA
nicolae.muntean@ieee.org, mihaela.gavris@et.upt.ro, octavian.cornea@et.upt.ro
Abstract- The proposed, small power, mixed wind and PV energy
conversion system (MWPV) consists of a dual input hybrid buck
L/ hybrid buck C, DC-DC converter (HBLC), made by two
hybrid step down converters with a high ratio of the
input/output voltage (the main part), a battery bank as a storage
element, and a DC-AC inverter for AC loads supplied with, or
without grid connection. The MWPV is coordinated by an
energy management control unit (EMCU) in order to obtain
maximum energy conversion efficiency and to establish the
working regime. Operating modes, analytical description and
digital simulations, validated by experimental results, are
presented for HBLC. The operation strategy flowcharts of the
proposed MWPV are also described.
I. INTRODUCTION
The increasing demand on global electric energy requires
the use of renewable energy sources, taking into account that
the oil, coal and gases are slowly growing energy sources.
Renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar
energy exist in abundance in nature. This is a promising way
to solve the contradiction between the exhausting resources
and the growing demands. In the past, renewable energy
sources diffusion was limited by technological shortcomings
and higher costs. In the last decades the efficiency and
reliability of wind generators and PV arrays have been
improved, while the costs have been lowered.
Wind power and PV array power, each by themselves,
cannot continuously supply a system because they depend on
the weather conditions. Fortunately, most of the time wind
and PV power are complementary. Therefore a wind - PV
hybrid generation system [1-10] has a higher reliability for
maintaining a continuous power delivery, by means of a
storage element, especially when the system is off-grid.
Traditionally, MWPV use two independent DC-DC
converters to provide the electric energy demanded by the
load, from the two input sources (PV and wind power).
An alternative approach is to use multiple input DC-DC
converters for mixing the energies. Such topologies have
been proposed in the literature [11-20].
The main objective of this paper is to propose a mixed,
small power, wind and PV energy conversion system,
coordinated by an energy management control unit. Section
II and III are focused on the system topology description and
on HBLC operating modes, digital simulations and
978-1-4673-1653-8/12/$31.00 '2012 IEEE
experimental results. A general control strategy is proposed
and discussed in section IV.
II. THE PROPOSED MWPV
The MWPV uses a variable speed wind turbine with a
synchronous PM generator (SG) and a diode bridge rectifier
(DBR) - as a first power source, and a PV array - as a second
power source, connected to the HBLC inputs, as shown in
Fig. 1. A dumping resistor (DR) is used for the dissipation of
the wind turbine excess power. The load is assumed to be an
AC load (ACL). Therefore, a voltage inverter is required,
also for grid connection if available or needed. The MWPV
can work stand-alone or grid connected by means of a switch
(RG) and a short-circuit fuse protection (F1).
The wind subsystem is the main power source of the
MWPV. The PV array subsystem starts operation when the
wind power generation is not enough to satisfy the demanded
power, in stand-alone regime.
The battery, connected directly to the output of HBLC, is
used to store supplementary energy or to ensure continuity in
power supply.
III. THE PROPOSED HYBRID BUCK LC CONVERTER
The proposed HBLC (fig. 2) is made using two hybrid buck
converter (hybrid buck L and hybrid buck C) [20]. The
hybrid buck L converter structure is obtained by inserting two
diodes and two inductors in a classical buck converter. The
hybrid buck C converter has two capacitors and 3 diodes in
addition to a classical buck converter [21].
Depending on the PWM gate signals applied to the power
switches S1 and S2, the HBLC can draw power from one or
both renewable energy sources to the output side.
The operating modes of the HBCL are presented in fig. 2:
• Mode I: The switch S1 is on and the switch S2 is off.
The corresponding equivalent circuit is presented in fig. 2 (a).
The capacitors C1 and C2 are connected in series. The diode
D2, D3, D4 and D5 are reverse biased and treated as an open
circuit, while D7 and D45 provide a bypass path for the
inductors currents. In this mode the voltage source V1 will
charge the inductors L1, L3 and provides the electrical energy
to the load. The voltage source V2 will charge the inductor L2
and the capacitors C1 and C2;
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 Fig. 1. The topology of the mixed wind and PV array conversion system.
• Mode II: The switch S1 is off and the switch S2 is on. Depending on the relationship between d1 and d2, the
Fig. 2 (b) shows the equivalent circuit. The diodes D45 and converter has only three operating modes during one period
D7 are reverse biased while D2, D3, D4 and D5 are forward T. If d1 > d2, the operating modes are III, I and IV, else III, II
biased. The voltage source V2 will charge the inductors L1, and IV.
L2 and L3 and supply the load. The capacitors C1 and C2 are The output voltage expressions for d1>d2, and d1<d2,
connected in parallel. respectively, can be obtained as:
• Mode III: The switches S1 and S2 are on. Fig. 2(c)
d1 d2
presents the equivalent circuit. The diodes D4 and D5 are VO = V1 + V (1)
forward biased and the others reversed computed. The 2 − d1 ( 2 − d1 )( 2 − d2 ) 2
voltage sources V1 and V2 will supply the load with energy.
• Mode IV: Both switches, S1 and S2, are off. The d1 2d 2 − d1
VO = V1 + V (2)
equivalent circuit is shown in fig. 2 (d). The load will be
supplied with the energy stored in the inductors L1 and L3.
2 − d1 ( 2 − d1 )( 2 − d2 ) 2
The voltages across the inductors L1 and L2 are presented in
table I.
TABLE I
To verify the proposed HBLC for MWPV, the simulation
VOLTAGE ACROSS THE INDUCTORS DURING ONE PERIOD setup has been designed and carried out with PLECS Blockset
Mode I Mode II Mode III Mode IV
under MATLAB [22]. The simulation results have been
validated by the experimental results obtained from a
S1 1 0 1 0
laboratory prototype. Some of them are presented in fig. 3.
S2 0 1 1 0
The following parameters have been taken into account for
vL1 ½(V1-V0) VC-V0 ½(V1+VC-V0) -V0 both cases:
vL2 V2-2VC V2-VC V2-VC V2-2VC • V1= 20 V;
• V2= 20 V;
The power switches are working at the same frequency, • switching frequency, fs = 100 kHz;
with different conduction times. d1 and d2 are the duty cycles • L1= 28 µH;
of the switches S1 and S2. When the transistors gate signals • L2= L3= 28 µH;
are synchronized at the turn-off or turn-on transition time, the • C1 = C2 = 2,640 µF;
inductor current waveform has three different slopes. • C3 = 3,960 µF;
• R=1,6 Ω.

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 Fig. 2. Operating modes of the dual input HBLC converter: a) mode I, b) mode II, c) mode III, d) mode IV.
The prototype was built using HiPerFET (fast, rugged,
equally rated intrinsic diode technology) power MOSFETs
IXFN 120N20 for the two switches, S1 and S2, and fast
recovery epitaxial dual rectifier diodes DSEI 2X61 for
elements D2 – D5 and D7. Each power transistor is driven by
an optical isolated MOSFET driver HCPL-316J.
The gate signals of the power switches S1 and S2 are
synchronized at turn on and have the duty cycles d1= 75% and
d2= 35%.
The output DC voltage obtained from the analytical study
at the specified duty cycles is 14.6 V, and the value measured
in the laboratory is 12.8 V, because of the power in the
circuit.
From fig. 3 it can be seen that the simulated (fig. 3 a) and
experimental waveforms (fig. 3 b) are almost similar.
During one cycle the two input power sources are working
simultaneously, and only the first one is working individually,
following the operation mode sequence III, I, IV.
In our case the input sources are the SG (wind) and the PV
array power subsystems. The proposed operation strategy,
presented in the next section, depends on the MWPV status
(with, or without grid connection).
908
IV. THE PROPOSED CONVERSION SYSTEM OPERATION
STRATEGY
The possibility of the MWPV to satisfy the power demand
depends on the atmospheric conditions. In such conditions,
the role of the battery bank (either storing or supplying
energy), and whether the system is grid connected or stand
alone, will define the operation strategy of the control. This
is the EMCU role, which supervises the power flow of the
whole system.
The proposed operation modes are dictated by the energy
balance between the renewable sources, loads and storage
elements.
The battery charging/discharging cycles must be made
carefully, to extending its life cycle. The operation strategy
takes in consideration the “state of charge” (SOC) of the
battery and provides the corresponding current references
(Imax ch, Imax dis).
Both wind turbine and PV array subsystem (the input
sources) can work at their maximum power (MPPT) or with a
power regulation (PR). The power regulation control means
that the subsystem can be inactive or working at a prescribed
power.
 a) Simulation Results b) Experiment Results

Fig. 3. The correlation between the simulation results and experimental results.

Two cases will be described for the MWPV: grid connected

and stand-alone. • Imax_ch- the maximum charging current for the battery
bank (according to the SOC);
A. Grid connected MWPV
• Imax_dis- the maximum discharging current for the
In this case the following supposition has been made:
battery bank (according to the SOC);
• the wind turbine and the PV array are working at the
• IGin- the injected current into the grid;
maximum power point;
• IGout- the input current from the grid
• the load will be the main energy consumer;
The flow chart has four possible cases:
• if the generated power is in excess, the battery bank
• the input sources give more power than needed. The
will be charged (if is not fully charged) and the
remained power will be inject into the grid through
remained power is injected into the grid;
IGin;
• if the generated power is not enough for the load, the
• all generated power will be used by the AC loads and
battery bank supplies the difference, alone, or by
the battery bank (in charging mode);
means of the grid.
• the input sources and the battery will supply the
Fig. 4 presents the flow chart of the grid connected
needed power by the AC loads;
MWPV. The parameters used for the flow chart
• the input sources and the battery cannot generate
representation are:
enough power to ACL (IHBLC+ Imax_dis < I’L). In this
• IHBLC- the output current of the HBLC;
situation the system will take power from the grid
• I’L- the demanded current from the AC loads reflected
through IGout.
to the d.c. bus side;
• Ibat_ch- the charging battery bank current; B. Stand-alone MWPV conversion system
• Ibat_dis- the discharging current of the battery; The following assumptions have been made for the stand-
alone MWPV:

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 • the EMCU will try to get the maximum power from
wind turbine which has the main role in energy
generation;
• the PV array subsystem will play a complementary
role;
• the energy stored in the battery bank will be used just
in the case when the demanded power is higher than
the input (PV and wind) power.
Fig. 5 shows the operation strategy flow of the stand-alone
MWPV. The parameters used for the flow chart
representation are the same as in previous subsection.
The operation modes for the MWPV are:
• the wind turbine subsystem will supply all the needed
power. Therefore, the wind turbine will work under
power regulation strategy (PR WIND) while the PV
array is inactive and the battery bank is storing energy.
This operation mode is maintained until the total
demanded power is higher than the wind turbine Fig. 4. Flowchart for the grid connected MWPV.
generated power.
• the wind turbine subsystem works at maximum power
point (MPPT WIND) and the PV array subsystem
follows a power regulation strategy (PR PV).
In the first two operation modes the total demanded power
includes the power needed for the loads and the power needed
to recharge the battery bank.
• once the generated power is not enough the system
attends the third operation mode, when both energy
power generation subsystems are set at their maximum
power point (MPPT WIND, respectively MPPT PV).
If at this point the generated power is not enough the
energy available in the battery bank will supplement
the generated power by the input sources.
• when energy stored in the battery and generated by the
renewable sources is not enough, a load disconnection
control unit (LDC) is needed. However, this situation
is quite rare because the system modules (wind
turbine, PV array and battery bank) need to be sized to
avoid this situation.

V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper have proposed a mixed renewable energy
conversion system, combining a variable speed wind turbine,
which is the main power generation subsystem, and a
photovoltaic array, which has a complementary role in power
generation.
A new dual input converter topology is proposed for
mixing these energies, with analytical description and digital
simulations, validated by experimental results.
The proposed HBLC has the advantage of a high input to
output voltage ration without using a transformer, which
makes it suitable for a MWPV where the battery bank voltage
is much lower than the renewable sources voltages.
The MWPV can work with, or without grid connection.
An EMCU controls the power flow in the whole system in
both situations.
Fig. 5. Flowchart for the stand-alone MWPV.
If MWPV is grid connected, both power generation
subsystems are working at their maximum power point. The
exceeded generated power is grid injected, or the opposite
case, the system will take power from the grid.
If the MWPV is stand-alone the operation modes depends
on the balance between the demanded power and the
generated power. The demanded power will dictate how the
two renewable energy subsystems will work.
The paper was focused on the HBLC. Future work will
treat digital simulations and implementation of proposed
MWPV control strategy in a laboratory prototype.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was partially supported by the strategic grant
POSDRU/88/1.5/S/50783, Project ID50783 (2009), co-
financed by the European Social Fund – Investing in People,
within the Sectorial Operational Programme Human
Resources Development 2007-2013.
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