Approaching hybrid wind-diesel systems and controller area network

High wind penetration hybrid wind-diesel systems have complex control requirements. The random nature of the wind, the cubic velocity to power relationship and the fast response of wind turbines make control goals like maintain system stability, and prescribed power quality levels, not easy to achieve. This paper deals with how to implement a distributed control system based on the controller area network (CAN) in hybrid wind diesel systems with high wind penetration. Firstly some introduction to hybrid wind-diesel systems is presented. Secondly two architectures for such hybrid systems are presented and studied mainly from the control point of view. This study concludes with a need of a distributed control, and the definition of some sensor and actuator nodes in the system. The CAN bus is used to close one of the several regulation loops presented. Some considerations about real time distributed control like clock synchronization among nodes when using CAN bus are presented. Finally some advantages of using CAN with such hybrid systems are outlined.