Study of hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell system for stand-alone applications

The advancement in technology, environmental concerns, emerging power markets and deregulation of electric power utilities are leading to increased interconnection of distributed generators to the utility system. The photovoltaic energy is naturally intermittent in nature with stochastic variations, hybridization of PV system with other sources is essential so as to ensure incessant supply of electricity. The transient power is absorbed or supplied by supercapacitors during variations in unpredictable PV power or load demand. This chapter presents the technology, application, modeling, control and performance study of hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell system for stand-alone applications. The hybrid system comprises of PV system with MPPT controller, a DC-DC boost converter with controller for managing power of fuel cell system and inverter controller. The stand-alone hybrid system provides the quality of supply to consumers with a regulated voltage and frequency. The dynamic modeling and control strategies of the hybrid system are implemented and simulation study are performed in MATLAB/Simulink environment.