Performance Evaluation and Optimization of the Standalone Wind/PV Hybrid Energy System
Project Advisor : Dr. Jyotirmay Mathur
Project Sponsor : Rajasthan Instrumentation and Electrical Limited (REIL), Jaipur
Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur
Motivation : My final year project work was focused on determining the feasibility of a standalone Wind/PV hybrid energy system. We also did theoretical modeling to determine whether our experimental hybrid energy system can be used to run a small domestic refrigerator. These refrigerators can play a vital role in storing vaccines and other life saving drugs at Primary Health Centers in rural India, which suffer from severe power shortage. The picture on the right shows one such experimental setup.
Work : In this project we focused on two areas:
1) Determination of wind pattern
First, we determined the wind pattern at the installation site. For this, we collected the wind speed data of the installation site using round the clock data logging system. This data was used to compute wind speed distribution curve using weibull distribution function. The weibull parameters obtained experimentally were compared with parameters using the ISHRAE decade weather file.
2) Performance evaluation and optimization
Secondly, we did the performance evaluation and optimization of the experimental hybid energy system to meet the power requirement of a domestic refrigerator. The picture in the right shows an installed wind turbine and photovoltaic module. The power generated by wind turbine was compared with the theoretical maximum power to find the coefficient of power (Cp), which is a measure of wind turbine efficiency to convert wind speed into useful electrical energy. ISHRAE weather file was used to calculate solar irradiance falling on the tilted surface of the photovoltaic module surface. The data related to solar irradiation on horizontal surface, ambient temperature etc. is obtained from ISHRAE weather file.
The power generated by wind turbine and PV module obtained in an hour was assumed to be constant and was used for charging the lead acid battery. The charging and discharging time of the battery bank depends on the load which in our case is domestic refrigerator. The Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP) was used to determine the system reliability to meet the requirement. Finally, an optimized configuration of the system which can meet the power requirement and is also most cost effective for system life time was found using Genetic Algorithm.
