Power and Energy Management Strategies for Stand-alone Renewable Energy with Storage Systems

Abstract

There is growing concern in society regarding the adverse effects associated with the use of fossil fuels, particularly oil, coal, and gas. The curiosity about utilizing renewable and clean energy is consistently growing, leading to the emergence of new energy systems as a significant scientific and technological breakthrough. Currently, manufacturers of different energy components, including solar panels, fuel cells, DC DC converters, and others, are encountering challenges in terms of optimization, control, and durability. These challenges are also being experienced by various industrial sectors. In order to develop innovative and effective energy solutions that can compete in the energy sector, it is crucial to address these issues. In addition, renewable energy sources depend on several uncon trollable factors, such as geographical location and weather conditions. To effectively manage the variability of energy availability, it is recommended to integrate multiple energy sources and implement efficient energy management strategies. The approach known as hybridization is a suitable method for designing efficient energy solutions. The objective of this thesis is to tackle the challenges related to hybridization, power, and en ergy management. To provide more clarity, we are investigating a hybrid system that comprises of both photovoltaic solar panels and a fuel cell. The system is designed to incorporate convert ers and a storage system, which includes batteries and supercapacitors. The goal is to develop control strategies that can efficiently harness the maximum power from designated sources and optimize the overall energy system to meet load requirements. Our approach focuses on imple menting highly effective energy management strategies and power point tracking algorithms. The main objective for Standalone DC microgrids often have challenges in energy management for a long time horizon due to uncertain renewable energy sources and volatile loads. This work presents a centralized energy management strategy (EMS) for a standalone DC microgrid with solar PV, fuel cells, and a battery energy storage system (BESS). The proposed EMS method is designed to improve the longevity of BESS, reliability, and reduce the hydrogen intake. In the proposed EMS, the PV system de-rating method is used to overcome the deep charging of battery under low-demand conditions. The fuel cell power supply is varied using a reverse sigmoidal function of the Batterys state of charge (SoC). This improves the hydrogen fuel effi ciency and also helps in minimizing deep discharge of the battery under heavy loading condi tions. The centralized EMS is fed with load power, battery SoC, and individual source power information. Consequently, the EMS provides decisive commands to the individual source lo cal controller to control the respective output power. The efficacy of the proposed EMS under multiple operating conditions is evaluated in both simulation environment and on a hardware prototype of a DC microgrid. The second objective is to effectively regulate and maintain the stability of the output voltage, Section 0.0 which is accomplished by implementing a control loop. The objective has been successfully achieved by considering a realistic model of the converter. A comprehensive energy management strategy was developed after conducting a thorough in spection of each component and considering MPPT (maximum power point tracking). To demonstrate the importance of different strategies and the feasibility of our approach, we rec ommend using simulation and experimental results obtained from simulators. After conducting a thorough inspection of each component and considering MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking), a comprehensive energy management strategy was devised. In order to demonstrate the significance of various strategies and the practicality of our approach, we propose the use of simulation and experimental results using simulators