Optimal Energy Storage Management of Hydro-PV Hybrid Microgeneration

With the energy demand constantly growing, sustainable energy sources have been widely spread around the world. Among them, wind and solar photovoltaics stand out for their availability and cost of implementation, with the disadvantage of climate dependence, that can be solved by an energy storage system, such as a hydroelectric reservoir. However, large hydroelectric plants require high implementation costs and follow strict environmental regulations that make their execution hard. In this sense, hybrid microgeneration systems that use solar photovoltaic and hydro sources can reduce the costs and environmental impact of large projects and maintain their dispatchable characteristic, making them an attractive alternative. This work presents a microgrid topology with three converters to connect the hydro and PV sources in the grid. The proposed Hydro-PV system demonstrates a gain in generation when compared with the standard Hydro-PV system, in rainy periods. That’s maintains a power generation suitable for feeding the load without extra power, enabling operation in off-grid mode without the use of batteries.