Achraf Abdelkafi

Sizing of a stand-alone hybrid system supplying a desalination unit

Economic and environmental concerns over fossil fuels encourage the development of renewable energy. But to allow the penetration of intermittent energy sources, optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy systems is quite necessary. This paper presents an optimal sizing algorithm which estimates the sizes of different components of hybrid photovoltaic/wind power generation system supplying a desalination unit. The optimal combination of the hybrid system is selected according to its technical and economic profitability. A case study is conducted to analyze a hybrid project, which is designed to supply a desalination unit feeding the Kerkennah islands (Tunisia) with fresh water.

Control and energy management of a hybrid power source including WECS-FC-SC

This paper focuses on energy management of a hybrid system which includes a wind generator as a primary energy source, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as energy source with slow dynamics and a supercapacitor (SC) as a fast dynamics storage system. All these devices are connected to a common DC bus and a variable load. The objective of this work is to elaborate a control algorithm of the hybrid power source in all operating modes. This control strategy ensures an energy production continuity to satisfy the needs of the supplied site. The simulation results presented in this paper show the efficiency of the applied control strategy.

Graphical interface development of a sizing algorithm of a photovoltaic/wind/hydrogen system

This paper presents a simulation graphical interface of a sizing algorithm of a hybrid renewable energy system. This algorithm has been developed for sizing the components of a stand-alone PV/wind/hydrogen system supplying a desalination unit which feeds the Kerkennah islands (Tunisia) with fresh water. The aim of this approach is to determine, among a list of commercially available system devices, all possible configurations of the hybrid system that would guarantee a reliable energy supply. The simulation and the display of all configurations obtained by this algorithm are performed by the graphical interface. This interface sorts the obtained combinations according to their investment cost in ascending order, selects the optimal solution and presents the various curves describing the behavior of the optimal hybrid system.

Power quality improvement of a wind farm without adding any type of storage system

The wind power is characterized by fluctuation due to intermittent primary source, which can damage the electrical network stability because of the imbalance between production and consumption. To solve this problem, this paper is focused on the dynamic of wind farm made by the association of N-aerogenerators with Permanent Magnetic Synchronous Generator (PMSG). The scope of this work is to investigate a new control strategy to ensure a balance, at each instant, between the wind farm generated power and the required one by the consumers without adding any type of storage systems. The proposed wind farm control is composed of two hierarchical structures. The first one is the global control applied to the manager wind turbine which has the responsibility to make, on the one hand, the wind farm generated power smooth and to ensure, on the other hand, the energy balance. The second one is the local control corresponding to the slaves wind turbines which are used only to produce the maximum of energy. The performance and the robustness of the proposed control strategy is evaluated and discussed by simulations.