Active load simulation study of solar and wind hybrid energy system in stand-alone mode of operation

Background: This work presents results based on realistic data as inputs obtained from the NASA surface metrology consisting a PV-Wind hybrid system. Methods: This system includes PV and wind subsystems, load and a hybrid system. The system included a 3.6kW PV array and a 3.2kW wind turbine and collected realistic data from January to December 2015 from the NASA website at Manipal location (INDIA) to calculate the solar and wind power. The study simulated daily and monthly data, and validated the simulation results for the physical system. Two Boost converters transfer a maximum power of Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) and Photo Voltaic (PV) system to DC link. These converters are operated based on Perturb and Observed (P & O) MPPT algorithm and with a change in duty cycle. Based on PQ control strategy, the single-phase voltage source inverter supplies power to the grid and maintains the DC link voltage 400V. Results: With LCL filter, the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the load current was observed to be 1.66% and without filter, the THD of the load current was 25.66%. Conclusion: Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of load voltage was 0.1 % with LCL filter and without filter, the load voltage THD was 60.76%.