PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF POWER CONDITIONING SYSTEM FOR MICRO GRID

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is the modeling and simulation of a PV and Fuel Cell connected to microgrid through Power Conditioning System. It couples a Photovoltaic Cell (PV), a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), and Power Conditioning System (PCS) to give different system topologies. The system is intended to be an environmentally friendly solution since it tries maximizing the use of a renewable energy source. Electricity is produced by a PV generator to meet the requirements of a user load. Whenever there is enough solar radiation, the user load can be powered totally by the PV electricity. During periods of low solar radiation, auxiliary electricity is required. A Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell is used to keep the system's reliability at the same level as for the conventional system while decreasing the environmental impact of the whole system. The PEM fuel cell consumes gases which are produced by an electrolyser to meet the user load demand when the PV generator energy is deficient, so that it works as an auxiliary generator. Power conditioning units are appropriate for the conversion and dispatch the energy between the components of the system. The microgrid consists of PV cell and Fuel cell. The PV and/or Fuel cell are producing low voltage DC. This low voltage DC is stepped up to required, DC bus voltage by DC — DC boost converter. This DC bus voltage was then interfaced with the utility power grid and/or a custom load through a single-phase or three-phase DC/AC inverter. All converter topologies (i.e., DC-DC boost converter and DC-AC inverter to connect grid) have been studied. iv