Performance Results of Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell Based Hybrid Energy System under Variable Conditions

Abstract

In this paper, dynamic operation and optimization of a grid connected hybrid system including photovoltaics (PV) and fuel cell (FC) is presented. For this purpose, abc/dq transform based power flow controller is used in inverter-part in order to achieve the optimal power flow from energy generation sources to utility-grid. Also, a maximum power point tracking algorithm is implemented to control dc-dc conversion part in the hybrid system which is tested under variable conditions such as different system temperatures for FC stack and different irradiation levels for PV module. The system is designed for a three phase grid connection at no-load conditions. The proposed system is designed and tested through Matlab/Simulink environment. The performance results are obtained for three case studies. The performance results show that the designed system have excellent results under different operating conditions.