AI AA-2000-3025

PV BATTERY WIND-TURBINE PUBLIC-GRID HYBRID

POKER SUPPLY FOR TELECOM. -EQUIPMENT
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT & CONTROL
A.Dmowski, B.Kras, P.Bicze1 &
J.Drazkiewicz
Warsaw University of Technology,
Institute of Electrical Energy Technology,
ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warsaw,
POLAND, Bkras@ee.pw.edu.pl

M. Zahran
Electronics Research Institute, NRC Blg.,
PV Cells Dept, El-Tahrir St., Dokki,
12311-Giza, EGYPT,
Tel./Fax. 00202(33 10512/335163 l),
Zahran@,eri.sci.eg &
zahranmba~~t-m-!.,com

1. ABSTRACT
As a result of the increasing acceptanceof
renewable energy conversion technology that
gives high reliability, hybrid power systems
now represent the preferred choice for
electrical power at many remote sites. These
systems include the following power
elements; photovoltaic panels, storage
batteries, wind turbines, public grid and
system controls. The system architecture
combines the power systems on the DC bus
where the load distribution and battery
storage is also located. The system controller
provides supervisory control of all power
system elements as well as protection. Some
of the control hnctions and protections that
the system executes are listed as follows: 1)
The battery charging sequence is inherently
current limited by parallel array resistors as
well as the capacity of the power systems
components, 2) Voltage is limited for the end
of charge current reduction, and 3) The
batteries do not require fill charge every
cycle. The operation of a stand-alone
photovoltaic system depends not only on the
quality of the individual system components
but also on their interaction in the total
system. The demands on the operation
control, which co-ordinates the interactions,
increase with the system complexity. The
significance of the operation control is due to
its influence on the reliability of the energy
supply and on the component lifetimes. This
paper
introduces the
design
and
implementation of the PVBWG hybrid

system. A new technique is used to control

the battery charging current. A developed
control algorithm is created to give hundred
percent priorities of the load tasks as well as
to manage and protect the system
components.

2. PVBWG HYBRID SYSTEM

CONFIGURATION
The present system compose a PV generator
and a wind turbine as a main source of energy
for a telecommunication equipment located in
Makowiec city, south of Warsaw, the capital
of Poland. The storage battery is used as
energy buffer for the system while the public
grid is also present as a stand-by power
supply in worst cases. The PVBWG hybrid
system consists of 18 modules ,,GPVME
type,
4 solar batteries, from the
,,sonnenschein type with a total capacity
1 1.04 kWh and a wind g,enerator,Aero-Craft
type with a power rating 750 W. The public
grid is used as a back-up source of energy in
the case of emergency cases to charge the
batteries via a special AC/DC converter. The
system configuration is shown in Figure 1.
The PV. array is divided into 9 strings, each
string composes a two series modules to
reach the system voltage 48V. The module
reverse operation is protected via blocking
diode connected at the module terminal in the
junction box. The battery capacity is age1
type, one string of 4 batteries, with a rating
as mentioned above, 230Ah at 12V each or
230 Ah at 48 V total, measured at ClOO rate

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of discharge. The wind turbine is a750W

rating at 9.5 m / s wind speed and the cut-off
speed is 3 d s . The generator is connected by
a power conditioning circuit which compose
a AC/DC converter followed by a DC/DC
converter to regulate the output voltage from

the wind generator. This paper presents a

control strategy of PVBWG hybrid system,
The classical system configuration was
introduced in /1/(1999) and the developed
one is shown in Figure 1.

4
s3

1
L

I
I

Public Grid

Fig. 1, The PVBWG hybrid system configuration with

the controlled power resistors array.

3. RENEWABLE SOURCES
CHARACTERISTICS

3.1. PV GENERATOR

The two renewable sources in this installation

are the PV generator and the wind generator.
In the following the characteristics of each
element will be discussed and represented.

As mentioned before, the PV array consists

of nine strings, two mOdules each. The
rt-"he has the following specifications:
0 Rating Power p110 5%
o Short Circuit Current I,, , 3.73 A,

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o Open Circuit Voltage V,,, 43.28 V,

o Current at MYP I,
3.21 A, and
o Voltage ate MPP V, 34.21 V.

V,,

The PV generator sub-system characteristics

are simulated at different insolation levels and
different operating temperatures. The results
are shown in the following diagrams. Figure
2 show the insolation pattern for the site of
application, a small village school, close to
Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Figure 3
shows the characteristics of the used PV
generator at different insolation patterns and
fixed temperature at 28 C.

A wind turbine cannot capture a1 the kinetic

power in the wind. A well suited, designed
properly for the wind conditions at the site,
will convert about 25% of the kinetic power
in the wind into useh1 power. So, the
average power output of a good wind turbine
is:
Pav
= 0.25*1.17 AV,:
Where P,

3.2. POWER IN THE WIND AND

WIND TURBINES
The power of motion (kinetic energy)
contained in a moving air stream can be
calculated by the following formula
1241999):
KP=%pAV3
Where: KP kinetic power (watts)
p
Air density (1.225 kg/m3 at
std. Cond.)
V
wind speed.
It should be noted that, the kinetic power
depends on the cube of the wind speed, so if
the wind speed doubles, the amount of
kinetic power in the wind increases by eight.
Thus, wind speeds higher than the average
wind speed contain much more power than
those below the average wind speed do. For
typical variation of wind speed, the average
kinetic power can be calculated from the
average speed by the formula:

therefore kinetic power, with

time.
average windi speed at the
center of the rotor ( d s )

average power output from

the wind turbine (Watt),
area swept by the wind turbine
rotor (m2)

The specific energy of the wind-turbine

Generator power is also modelled by the
following /3/(1998) formula as well as shown
in Figure 4:

Where a
b
P,
V,
VCI
VCO

= P, /
=

(V? - VC,),

v,, / (Vr3 - VC?),

rated power,
rated wind speed,
cut-in wind speed, and
cut-out wind speed.

The real electric power is calculated as:

= PW * AW * qw
Pel
Where 6/n

the multiplier accounts for the

distribution of wind speed, and

Where AW
qw

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is the total swept area of the

wind turbine generators, and
is the efficiency ofthe WTG.

300
200

0
0

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000

Year Hours [hr)

Figure 2, The insolation pattern at the site of application.

35

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I

I
I

I
I

I
I

I
I

I
I

30

25
20
15

10

5
0
0

40
50
60
70
80
System Voltage (V)
Fig. 3, The PV Generator sub-system I-V Characteristics
At Different Insolation Levels.
10

20

30

1255

90

Rated

3
Q
c.

al

Wind Speed

Fig. 4, The wind turbine operating ch/s as a fbnction of wind speed.

4. SYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND
CONTROL
The PV array and the wind generator are
connected in parallel with the battery bank
that can be charged in emergency cases from
the public grid via a special battery charger.
The public grid is used also as an emergency
backup source of energy system with a
special battery bank with the same rating as
the first one. The second battery bank is
connected in parallel with the first one to
keep it full charge and to use it as a on-line
back-up source of energy. The second battery
bank is charged also by a special charge
regulator powered fi-om the public grid while
all the other system components are
disconnected during this mode of operation.

switches between the different system

components. It is also able to change the
system mode of operation.
Supervised
object

t-t
Analog inputs
subsystem

Digital inputsloutputs
subsystem

75
Modem

4,

Phone line

Fig. 5. S A N Control system circuit diagram.

4.1. Traditional control scheme

All the system COMPONENTS has it's own
controller, analogue controller, and all of the
sub-systems controllers are managed by a
microcontroller board /l/(1999). The maincontroller board analyse the outputs of the
sub-system components and it has the ability
to enable or disable any subsystem when it
discover any unlogic results The system
operation is monitoring remotely by another
controller through a modem and a telephone
cable. The remote controller can shutdown or
restarts the local system as well as control the

4.2. FUNCTION AND OPERATION OF

THE PRESENT CONTROLLER
The power plant is controlled by the S A N

microprocessor control system shown in

Figure 5, which constantly monitors objects
and stores all operational parameters.
The system consists of central unit with
microprocessor, subsystem of analogue
inputs, subsystem of digital inputs/outputs,
internal memory and serial bus for

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communication possibilities (modem and/or

computer). Central unit is a microprocessorbased unit. It has possibilities to take decision
using advanced control algorithm. This unit
collects measured data from the supervised
objects, stores them and controls the power
plant state. Using communication links
(modem -long distance, serial bus -up to
1200 m) central unit can alarm the service
personnel. For storing data, the supervision
system is equipped with the memory. The
digital inputs/outputs subsystems are used to

inspect two-state parameters of the solar

power plant. Additionally they give
possibilities to co-operate with other systems.
The analogue inputs system is used to collect
measurement data like voltages, currents,
temperatures, output signals of smoke
detectors, cell electrolyte density sensors etc.
In Figure 6, there is an example screen from
the S A N monitoring program on the PC. The
real currents from the solar panel and
chemical battery are visible on them.

Fig. 6, An example plots of the current from solar panels and chemical battery
Registered in power plant on January 1999.

5. DEVELOPED BATTERY CHARGING

CURRENT CONTROL
Using parallel-controlled resistors with the
PV array controls the battery charging
current. Inserting a fast schotcky diode
between them prevents the reverse operation
between the resistor array and the wind
generator. Using electronic switches, which
controlled from the main system controller,
controls the inserting of the resistor array in
the power circuit. The component ratings as
well as the system control strategy can be
deduced as follows.
5.1. RESISTOR ARRAY DESIGN AND
VALUES ESTIMATING
To determine the number of the used resistor
array as well as the rating of each resistor, the

PV array maximum output current should be

estimated. Since, the PV array consists of
nine strings, two modules in series each, then
at the standard test conditions; 1000W/m2
and 25 OC, the maximum out current Ipv,
will be:
~ A.
Ipvmax = 9 * 3 . 2 1 28.8
To have a different variety of charging
current control, the resistor array will
distributed with weighting as a binary system.
This means that, the second resistor will be a
double of the first and the third w
i
l
l bea
double of the second and so on.. Since the
main system controller board is a 8 bit
microcontroller sub-system, the number of
resistor will be selected to be equal to one
byte, but the final selection will be estimated
based on the effectiveness of each one.

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If the first resistor has a R-value, then the

resistors array values will be as shown in

Table 1.

Table 1, The Resistors Array Distribution Values.

~~~-

.Ro
R

RI
2R

R2

R3

4R

8R

To estimate the value of R, the equivalent

resistor should be estimated. Since, the
resistors are connected in parallel, then the
equivalent resistors will be:
4 = 1& + 1&+"
+I& +1&
IL, =0.50196R

&
16R

&
32R

Ib
64R

128R
R7

resistor at maximum operation condition will

be;
1 ~ 0
= 52/3.5
= 14.857A 2 15A.

Table 2 shows the values of different

resistance's in the array as well as the
dissipated current by each one. By using all
the resistors present in Table 2, we w
ill have
The maximum ability of the PV array, IPvmax 255 steps of charging current, this means that
= 28.8 A at 52V. If the Battery State of
we will have a very smooth variation in the
Charge SOC is at maximum value, then charging current. But on the other hand, the
resistor array should dissipate the PV array controller time as well as the number of taken
output while the wind generator is action to estimate the appropriate current
disconnected. So, from this mode of value will be high, and so a fast wearing up of
operation, the equivalent resistor array can be the controlled power resistor array switches.
estimated as follows:
It could be depicted from Table 2 that the last
two resistors have a small penetration in the
Rcq
= 52128.8
= 1.805 Q
charging current control, since they sink a
Then, the value of R can be estimated as:
very small current value compared to PV
R
=R,/0.50196
array output. By removing these two
= 1.80555 / 0.50196
resistors from the array, the maximum
number of taken actions to reach the
= 3.597
appropriate charging current value at
The value of R will be taken as the nearest maximum SOC and maximum array output
standard available power resistors, 3.5 SZ. (worst case), will be reduced to 64 times
Then the dissipated current by the first instead of 255 times. 'This means saving in
controller time as well as switches lifetime.
1

+1/R; +1&

+1&

a.

Table 2, Resistors values and Sank Current

Resistor Number I
Value in R
I Sank Current in A
15.OOOO
3.5
7.5000
7.0
14.0
3.7500
1.8750
28.0
56.0
0.9375
0.4688
112.0
0.2344
224.0
0.1172
448.0
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Read PVC, IEi, VB, WT (odoff)

and PG (o~l/off)

-ve Discharge

+ve Charge

Get SOC & IBd

Get SOC

i
D E ( B d - IB)

List itsymbols:
D
Diffcrsnce Bctwcen
waiting

1 NO

Sampling
Period

er

m
IBd

Min.
Max.
PO

PVC
RC
SOC

sw
Decrement
RC

WT
WTC

Incretiietit
RC

Error Value (band)

BatterycwSnt
Desked beasry Curmnt
Minivaluc of

Maxhnum valw of
Public Orid gats
Photovoltsic Cumnt
Resistor Counter
battery State of Chargo
Switch
Wind turbine
Wmd Turbine Curmnt

Fig. 7, The Control Algorithm Flow-Chart.

6.

THE CONTROL ALGORITHM

The telecommunication equipment is highly

recommended and the load tasks have a
hundred percent priority, so the system
controller should manage the operation of
different system components to evaluate the

load requirements without any interruption.

The control algorithm is created to subtract
the maximum energy fiom the renewable
energy subsystems. The battery is the
weakest element in the system, so its
operation is completely under control. The

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system controller, microcontroller subsystem,

estimates the battery mode of operation. If
the battery in a charge mode, it acts to
protect the battery from overcharging states
as well as it regulate the charging current to
be relevant to the battery state of charge
(SOC). While the battery in discharging state,
the main task of the controller is to protect
the battery from deep Discharge State, so it
monitors the SOC and initiates the system
components according to the energy flow and
renewable availability. In the case that the
battery reach deep discharge state and the
renewable sources are not able to power the
load, the controller take a decision to interact
the public to power the load as well as to
charge the battery. Figure 7 shows the
control algorithm flow chart.
7. CONCLUSION
A hybrid system of photovoltaic, storage
battery, wind generator coupled with the
public grid is installed as an energy source of
a very urgent load, telecommunication
equipment.
The
renewable sources;
photovoltaic array and wind turbine
generator size is determined to assure a
reliable power supply. The operation

characteristics of both photovoltaic array and

wind generator are introduced and shown at
different operating conditisns. An intelligent
controller algorithm is developed to manage
and control the system components as well as
to charge the battery. The: battery charger is
built by inserting a paralllel resistor array in
parallel with the PV array. The values of the
resistors array is designed based on the
system component size and the battery bank
capacity. The charging current is controlled
in a 64 steps with using only six resistors.
The control algorithm is created based on the
proportional control technique.
8. REFERENCES
1. A.Dmowski, B. Kras and M. Szczupak,
,,Hybrid
Solar-Wind Power
Plant,
NorthSun99, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
Aug. 1999.
2. MSC Enterprises, ,,Wind Energy: Basic
Information, Canadian Wind Energy
Association, Aug., 1999.
3. S. Rahman and R. Chedid, ,,ADesign
Support Technique for the Design of Hybrid
Solar-Wind Power Systems, EEE Tran. On
Energy Conversion, Vol. 13, No. 1, March
1998.

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