POWER CONDITIONING UNIT FOR SMALL SCALE HYBRID PV-WIND GENERATION SYSTEM

Small-scale renewable energy systems are becoming increasingly popular due to soaring fuel prices and due to technological advancements which reduce the cost of manufacturing. Solar and wind energies, among other renewable energy sources, are the most available ones globally. The hybrid photovoltaic (PV) and wind power system has a higher capability to deliver continuous power with reduced energy storage requirements and therefore results in better utilization of power conversion and control equipment than either of the individual sources. Power conditioning units (p.c.u.) for such small-scale hybrid PV-wind generation systems have been proposed in this study. The system was connected to the grid, but it could also operate in standalone mode if the grid was unavailable. The system contains a local controller for every energy source and the grid inverter. Besides, it contains the supervisory controller. For the wind generator side, small-scale vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are attractive due to their ability to capture wind from different directions without using a yaw. One difficulty with VAWTs is to prevent over-speeding and component over-loading at excessive wind velocities. The proposed local controller for the wind generator is based on the current and voltage measured on the dc side of the rectifier connected to the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control is provided in normal operation under the rated speed using a dc/dc boost converter. For high wind velocities, the suggested local controller controls the electric power in order to operate the turbine in the stall region. This high wind velocity control strategy attenuates the stress in the system while it smoothes the power generated. It is shown that the controller is able to stabilize the nonlinear system using an adaptive current feedback loop. Simulation and experimental results are presented. The PV generator side controller is designed to work in systems with multiple energy sources, such as those studied in this thesis. One of the most widely used methods to maximize the output PV power is the hill climbing technique. This study gives guidelines for designing both the perturbation magnitude and the time interval between consecutive perturbations for such a technique. These guidelines would improve the maximum power point tracking efficiency. According to these guidelines, a variable step MPPT algorithm with reduced power mode is designed and applied to the system. The algorithm is validated by simulation and experimental results. A single phase H-bridge inverter is proposed to supply the load and to connect the grid. Generally, a current controller injects active power with a controlled power factor and constant dc link voltage in the grid connected mode. However, in the standalone mode, it injects active power with constant ac output voltage and a power factor which depends on the load. The current controller for both modes is based on a newly developed peak current control (p.c.c.) with selective harmonic elimination. A design procedure has been proposed for the controller. Then, the method was demonstrated by simulation. The problem of the dc current injection to the grid has been investigated for such inverters. The causes of dc current injection are analyzed, and a measurement circuit is then proposed to control the inverter for dc current injection elimination. Characteristics of the proposed method are demonstrated, using simulation and experimental results. At the final stage of the study, a supervisory controller is demonstrated, which manages the different operating states of the system during starting, grid-connected and standalone modes. The operating states, designed for every mode, have been defined in such a hybrid model to allow stability and smooth transition between these states. The supervisory controller switches the system between the different modes and states according to the availability of the utility grid, renewable energy generators, the state of charge (SOC) of energy storage batteries, and the load. The p.c.u. including the supervisory controller has been verified in the different modes and states by simulation

Nonlinear dynamics of DC-DC converters

Power electronic converters are time-varying, nonlinear dynamical systems. They exhibit a wide range of steady-state responses. The desired behaviour is a stable periodic motion around a predefined value with a frequency that is equal to that of the external clock. However, as parameters vary the operation can lose stability and go from one regime to another. Such phenomena are termed bifurcations and can degrade the output performance of the converter. Hence, it is of practical importance to know the conditions that cause such bifurcations to occur and to design the system so that it operates in the desired region. In the past, engineers have typically analysed the stability of power electronic systems by linearising the model about a fixed point. This captures the low-frequency properties while ignoring the detailed dynamics occurring at frequencies higher than the external clock. However, the demand for better functionality, reliability and performance means an in-depth analysis into the complex behaviour exhibited by dc-dc converters is required. Traditionally, dc-dc converters are employed with analog controllers whose function is to regulate the circuit. With advances in technology, digital control has become a potentially advantageous alternative to analog control. One of the main advantages of digital control is the ability to design more sophisticated design strategies to enable high performance dc-dc converters e.g. digital state-feedback control. Unfortunately, little work exists in the area of the effect of noise on digital control. This is a field that requires intensive study as to completely understand the nonlinear dynamics so as to enable accurate and economic designs. The aim of this thesis is to address these issues through the application of advanced nonlinear mathematics. The stability of power electronic systems is assessed with a view to developing design guidelines in order to ensure stable operation over a wide operating region

Harmonic balance-based control of a boost DC/AC converter

The achievement of step-up inversion with a boost DC/AC converter requires appropriate periodic references for inductor currents, which have to satisfy ordinary differential equations (ODE) of the Abel type. These are equations with highly unstable solutions for which the existence of periodic solutions remains unproved. Hence, the studies reported so far in this subject obtain periodic output voltages that approximately track the expected profile using different periodic current references that do not exactly satisfy the Abel ODE. However, neither an explanation of why are periodic output voltages still obtained, nor an assessment of the output voltage error is provided. This paper analyzes the effect of using periodic current references in a Lyapunov-based controlled boost DC/AC converter performing step-up inversion tasks. It is shown that, for sufficiently accurate current references, the system exhibits asymptotically stable periodic solutions with bounded error. Moreover, the paper propounds the use of Harmonic Balance (HB)-based techniques to obtain such current references. Simulation and experimental results confirm that this choice yields periodic output voltages with an error that may be lowered using higher HB approximations.Postprint (published version