Design and Control of Solar PV-Pico Hydro Based Microgrid

This study deals with a solar photovoltaic (PV) and pico-hydro based microgrid having a battery energy storage (BES), which transfers uninterruptable power across voltage source converter (VSC) at the common coupling point (CCP). Only one VSC in this system, has the competency to eradicate the power quality problems, compensation of harmonics current, regulation of frequency and voltage under varying loads. A battery energy storage (BES), which is coupled directly to the DC bus, manages the power flow under the changes in loading and variable power generation. A synchronous reluctance generator (SYRG) for pico-hydro generation is used because of its reliability, and cost-effectiveness than other brushless generators such as permanent magnet synchronous generator. The SRFT (Synchronous Reference Frame Theory) control is used to control the system frequency and voltage at PCC. The proposed system uses an INC (Incremental Conductance) technique for extraction of maximum power from a PV array. The smooth performance of the microgrid under various operating conditions, is demonstrated through experimental results, which meet power quality requirement of the IEEE 519 standard.