Efficient Power Flow Management in Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

Abstract

In a DC microgrid, the main aim of power management is to maintain the balance of active power between renewable sources, storage batteries, loads, and distribution grid which can be represented by stable DC-link voltage. This paper proposes an adaptive strategy for power flow management of a stand-alone hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) consisting of a wind turbine generator, photovoltaic cell, battery energy storage (BES), and load by optimizing the gain of the PI controller in the battery storage system using the particle swarm optimization-based firefly algorithm (PSO-FA). A part of the PSO algorithm is utilized for improving velocity and attractiveness of the firefly algorithm thereby increasing the rate of convergence in the PI controller. This control technique improves gain constant by generating control pulses for charging and discharging of the BES system in order to make optimum use of renewable energy sources and to stabilize the voltage of the DC-link. From the simulations done in MATLAB/SIMULINK, it is observed that conventional trial- and error-based PI tuning produces high overshoot, whereas the proposed method produces better performance with less overshoot. Maintaining constant DC-link voltage, the instantaneous power generation under various conditions of generation and load consumption is managed by monitoring the state of charge of battery. This approach can be used as a complement for improving the performance of PI controllers designed by conventional methods.

Keywords:

• Battery storage system
• Firefly algorithm (FA)
• Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES)
• Power flow management system
• Wind energy system
• Particle swarm optimization (PSO)
• Photovoltaic (PV) system
• PSO-based firefly (PSO-FA)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Sheeba Jeba Malar

J Sheeba Jeba Malar received her BE in electrical and electronics in 1998 and ME in power systems in 1999 both from Annamalai University. Currently, she is working as associate professor in Electrical and Electronics Department of John Cox Memorial CSI institute of Technology, Kerala, India. Her research interests include the integration of distributed energy resources, control of power electronic converters, and power systems.

A. Bisharathu Beevi

A Bisharathu Beevi received her BTech degree in electrical from the University of Kerala in 1986. She received MTech from the University of Kerala in 2001 and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Kerala in 2011. Currently, she is working as a professor at the College of Engineering, Trivandrum. Her research interests include power systems, solar energy optimization, economic load dispatch. Email: [email protected]

M. Jayaraju

M Jayaraju received his BTech in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Kerala in 1985, ME from IISc Bangalore in 1994, and PhD from the University of Kerala in 2005. He was with the EEE Department of TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, India. He has served as the director of ANERT in the Department of Power under the Government of Kerala. Currently, he is the principal of MES Engineering College Kollam, Kerala, India. He is having more than 35 years of experience in engineering education and research. His research interests are high voltage engineering, energy conservation and management, and new and renewable energy sources. He has published more than 40 papers in various international journals and conferences and also published three text books. He is the life member of more than 10 professional bodies including IEEE (USA), Institution of Engineers (India), Institution of Valuers, and Indian Society for Technical Education. Email: [email protected]