Hybrid solar-wind system with battery storage operating in grid-connected and standalone mode: Control and energy management - Experimental investigation

The paper presents experimental results from the operation of a test bench constituted of a Grid-connected Hybrid system. This device includes wind and photovoltaic (PV) physical emulators, battery energy storage, load and a controlled interconnection to the Low Voltage (LV) grid. Both the Wind generation unit and the PV generation unit are connected to the weak AC grid via a single phase inverter with a lead acid accumulator. The grid power inverter is suitably controlled to permit the operation of the system either interconnected to the LV grid, or in standalone mode, with a seamless transfer from the one mode to the other. The paper provides a technical description of the Hybrid system devices and of the inverter energy management, along with extensive measurement results which demonstrate the system capability to operate in the aforementioned mode. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.