An Innovative Continuous Power Generation System Comprising of Wind Energy Along With Pumped-Hydro Storage and Open Well

This paper presents an off-grid sustainable power generation system suitable for rural areas of developing countries such as India where open wells are available for the purpose of irrigation and meeting the daily requirements of local families. The proposed scheme comprises of a small wind energy system with pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), which uses an open well as a source of water. The proposed system is different from all available wind-PHES systems in many ways. It uses two upper reservoirs instead of one; the hydraulic pump gets rotational energy directly from the wind turbine, while the pico-hydro turbine coupled with electric generator gets power from the potential energy of water stored in the upper reservoir. The mathematical model of the system has been developed and the actual wind speed data are used to carry out simulation for evaluation of the model performance. The attractive features of the scheme are its reliability, simplicity, and capability to supply continuous power at constant voltage exactly equal to the rated one in spite of wind speed variations. Another interesting use of the proposed system is to supply water to the locals along with electric power supply.