Simulation of power management circuit in a standalone solar photovoltaic-fuel cell-battery hybrid power system

Abstract

Here in we design and develop a standalone solar photovoltaic (PV)-fuel cell-battery hybrid power system along with a power management circuit to share the load among the sources. A solar panel is designed in Matlab/Simulink by using one diode equivalent model and Perturb & Observe (P&O) algorithm technique to track the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of the panel. Similarly, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack, DC-DC converter; lead acid battery and a battery charger to protect it from over charging and deep discharging, are also designd. A control algorithm is developed to share the load among the sources and it is embedded into the power management circuit. Finally, all these sub-systems are integrated and the hybrid system is simulated for 24 h with 1.5 kW constant load in Matlab/ Simulink. The prototype of the power management circuit is developed, integrated and tested over a 100 W solar PV - fuel cell - battery hybrid system in real time and corresponding results are recorded. Solar PV system supplying the load at an average of 6-8 hours in day time and remaining time load is supplied by fuel cell and battery bank.