Performance and feasibility analysis of integrated hybrid system for remote isolated communities

In many countries, less than five per cent of the rural population has access to electricity. In India also, a lot of people do not have access to electricity in remote areas. Fossil fuels are depleting in resources and conventional power stations cause detrimental effects to the environment. The paper presents one such novel initiative wherein electricity requirement is fulfilled by renewable energy. In this research work modeling and simulation of an integrated hybrid system in which a solar cell, wind turbine, fuel cell and ultra capacitor system is developed using a novel technique to complement each other. As the wind turbine output power varies with the wind speed and the solar cell output power varies with both the ambient temperature and radiation, a Fuel Cell (FC) system with an Ultra Capacitor (UC) bank can be integrated to ensure that the system performs under all conditions. FC system consists of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) stack and an electrolyzer. UC was used in power applications requiring short duration peak power. The results show that the proposed hybrid power system can tolerate the rapid changes in natural conditions and suppress the effects of these fluctuations on the voltage within the acceptable range.