Power management of a stand-alone wind/photovoltaic/fuel cell energy system

This paper proposes an ac-linked hybrid wind/photovoltaic (PV)/fuel cell (FC) alternative energy system for stand-alone applications. Wind and PV are the primary power sources of the system, and an FC-electrolyzer combination is used as a backup and a long-term storage system. An overall power management strategy is designed for the proposed system to manage power flows among the different energy sources and the storage unit in the system. A simulation model for the hybrid energy system has been developed using MATLAB/Simulink. The system performance under different scenarios has been verified by carrying out simulation studies using a practical load demand profile and real weather data. Index Terms--Alternative energy, electrolyzer, fuel cell (FC), hybrid, photovoltaic (PV), power management, stand-alone, wind.