Modeling and simulation of a hybrid power generation system of wind turbine, micro-turbine and solar heater cells

This paper is devoted to study the conversion of renewable energy resources into electrical energy in a standalone hybrid power generation system. The hybrid system consists of a 230 kW wind turbine, a 30 kW micro-turbine and solar heaters of double-parallel flow. Solar heaters are being used to partially preheat the air entering the combustion chamber of the micro-turbine in order to decrease the amount of fuel consumption. The dynamic behavior and simulation results are being discussed to extract the maximum energy obtained from a variable speed wind power generation system. The hybrid model has been simulated under several wind speed conditions. A supervisory controller is designed that was able to manage between the maximum energy captured from the wind turbine and the generated energy by the microturbine to meet the load demands and wind power fluctuation due to wind speed variation. Solar heaters saved amount of fuel on average 15.4 U.S. Dollars/hr monthly according to the data provided in the year 2013.