3rd International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, and Automation (ICCIA 2013), December 28-30, 2013, Tehran, Iran

Hybrid PV/Wind Power System Control for

Maximum Power Extraction and Output Voltage
Regulation
Siavash Taghipour Broujeni, Seyed Hamid Fathi, Member, IEEE, Javad Shokrollahi Moghani
Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology
Tehran, Iran.
To solve this problem, using different alternative energy
sources has been proposed, [1]-[3]. This technique causes the
two types of energy source to complement each other in a
sense. Multisource hybrid alternative energy systems (with
proper control) have great potential to provide higher quality
and more reliable power to customers than a system based on
a single resource. Because of this feature, hybrid energy
systems have caught worldwide research attention. However,
a major problem in using a PV source is to tackle its nonlinear
output characteristics, which vary with temperature and solar
irradiation.
The objective of this paper is to propose a hybrid PV/Wind
power system model. In this model all important parameters
can be changed and influence the performance of the power
system. The proposed model consists of a double input
DC/DC converter, a wind energy conversion system, and PV
arrays. After obtaining the model, different control strategies
are studied and an appropriate controller has been designed.
At the end, the performance of proposed controller of hybrid
system has been evaluated.

Abstract The objective of this paper is to analyze different

control strategies for hybrid PV/wind power systems. In addition,
designing the desirable controller for proposed hybrid system is
the other output of this paper. There are two important goals in
designing the control strategy for power systems with renewable
energy sources. One important issue is extracting maximum
power from the renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic
and wind energy. These types of energy sources deliver a
different amount of power to the power system under different
conditions. There are various strategies proposed in the literature
to extract maximum power from power sources. One of the most
applicable strategies has been used in this paper and the
performance of this strategy has been evaluated. The other issue
is regulating the output voltage around a pre-determined value,
in this case, the output voltage of the DC/DC converter must be
controlled so that the DC/AC inverter delivers the appropriate
voltage at the AC side. In this paper a hybrid Double-input
(PV/Wind) power system has been proposed and simulated in the
MATLAB environment and different control strategies have
been evaluated. The proposed power system consists of a DC/DC
converter, Wind Energy Conversion systems (WEC), and PV
arrays. The model of wind power plants consists of Wind
Turbine, PMSG Generator and a rectifier to deliver DC
electrical power. PV modules can be connected with different
configurations to form PV Arrays. The simulation of PV cells,
modules, and arrays has been addressed in this paper. At the end
of the paper, the performance of the proposed control strategy is
studied.

II. HYBRID PV/WIND SYSTEM SIMULATION

This section provides basic concepts of the proposed hybrid
system and sums up the performance equations which were
implemented in the simulated model. The hybrid system
consists of a double-input DC/DC converter, a wind energy
conversion system, and PV arrays. Each of these parts has been
elaborated on as follows:

Index Terms hybrid power system, wind energy conversion

system, PV arrays, control strategy, and maximum power point
tracking.

A. Wind energy conversion system (WEC)

The proposed WEC system, as it is shown in Fig. 1 consists
of the following components: a variable speed Wind Turbine,
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator, three-phase Diode
Bridge, [4]. The wind turbine generates torque from wind
energy. The torque is transferred via the turbine/generator shaft
to the rotor of the generator. The generator produces an
electrical torque, and the difference between the mechanical
torque from the wind turbine and the electrical torque from the
generator determines whether the mechanical system
accelerates, decelerates or remains at constant speed.
The generator is connected to a three-phase diode bridge
converter which provides a rectified three-phase power to feed
the proposed DC/DC double input converter. The model which
was simulated for WEC in MATLAB/ SIMULINK has been
shown in Fig.2. This model consists of wind turbine, PMSG

I. INTRODUCTION
Utilization of renewable energy is becoming increasingly
important from the viewpoints of environmental conservation
and depletion of fossil fuel. Wind power plant and photovoltaic
(PV) installations are being increasingly employed in several
applications, such as distributed power generation, stand-alone
or connected to the power system. The growth of wind and
photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems has exceeded the
most optimistic estimations.
However, each of the renewable energy sources has its own
drawbacks. For instance, wind and solar power are highly
dependent on climate. For instance, it is impossible to relay on
PV technology as a continuous source of energy during all
daily hours or in different light conditions.

978-1-4799-3117-0/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

59

generator and three phase rectifiers. The wind turbine has three
inputs: generator speed, pitch angle, and wind speed. As shown
in Fig.2, the wind speed can be easily changed by user to
evaluate the DC output voltage. As shown in Fig.2, the wind
turbine block produces a torque proportional to the wind speed,
and the produced torque is fed to the PMSG block as input.
Based on this produced torque, the PMSG produces the voltage
that is fed to the rectifier. In this paper, the effects of a change
in wind speed have been evaluated, and the pitch angle and
generator speed are treated as constant.
The output power characteristic of the WEC system has
been shown at Fig .3. As the figure shows, the output power
varies due to the voltage of the DC link. There is an exclusive
power characteristic for different wind speeds. For all these
characteristics, there is a special voltage in which the output
power becomes maximum, and the proposed controller sets the
DC link voltage at that value.

B. Photovoltaic system
Solar photovoltaic generation systems are becoming
increasingly important as a renewable energy source since
they offer many advantages such as, incurring no fuel costs,
no pollution, requiring little maintenance, and emitting no
noise, among others. The building block of PV arrays is the
solar cell, which is basically a pn semiconductor junction,
[5]. In the normal operating condition, as shown in Fig 3, the
PV cell can be equal to a photo-generated current source
paralleled with a diode and a resistance, then in series with a
resistance. The generic forward equivalent circuit model of
PV cell is shown in Fig. 4. The currentvoltage (VI)
characteristic of a solar photovoltaic cell is given by Eq. 1, 2,
3:

q
V + IRs
I = I ph I os exp
(V + IRs ) 1
Rsh

AKT
3

I os

q .Ego 1 1
T
= I or exp

T r
Bk T r T

I ph = I SRC + K I (T T r )
1000

Fig. 1. General schematic of WEC system

(1)

( 2)

( 3)

In the equation, I is the output current of the cells; V is the

output voltage of the cells; Iph is the current caused by
illumination; is the irradiation, q is the electron charge; Tr
is the reference temperature; T is the temperature of the cells;
Ego is the silicon forbidden band width; K is Boltzmann
constant; Rs is the series resistance; Rsh is the parallel
resistance; A and B are the fitting constant and A equals to B;
Ios is the short-circuit current; Ior is the inverse current of the
diode; and KI is the temperature coefficient. Among the PV
cells parameters: A, ISRC, RS, Rsh and Ego have a great
influence on the electrical characters and the other parameters
are constant or have little influence. To reduce the complexity
of the equations, ( /1000) is denoted by .
In order to improve the extraction efficiency, decrease the
difficulty in choosing the initial values, and ease the optimal
constraints it is better to extract these five parameters, and set
the other parameters with their standard values.
The constant parameters of PV modules are shown in
TABLE I. The PV cells equations are shown as (1)-(3).
There are three important types of PV cells: monocrystalline, poly-crystalline, and amorphous. Each of these
types has different parameters which relate to the
configuration of their PV cells. In this paper a poly-crystalline
PV cell has been considered for the hybrid system. The
parameters of this type have been shown in TABLE II. Based
on the equations (1)-(3), and the parameters mentioned in
Tables (1)-(2), a Poly-Crystalline PV module has been
simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK which is shown in Fig. 5.
The output power characteristics of PV arrays have been
shown in Fig .6. As stated in the previous session, there is a

Fig. 2. Proposed WEC system simulated in MATLAB

Fig .3 .The output power of WEC system

60

special voltage for PV arrays to deliver maximum power, and

this voltage varies based on temperature and irradiation. The
control strategy should set the output voltage of PV arrays at
this optimum voltage.

words, there are several compliant control modes, as explained

in the following remarks:
In this mode, the controller extracts maximum power
from two power sources. It means, controller
determines the time duration of two power switches
based on MPPT algorithms. As the controller has two
DOF, the control strategy cannot control the DC
output voltage of the DC/DC converter.
In this mode, the controller extracts maximum power
from the WEC system. In addition, the controller
determines the DC output voltage of the converter by
controlling the time duration of the power switch M1.
In this case, maximum power is extracted from the
WEC system, while, the PV arrays serve the purpose
of setting the output voltage to a determined value.
In the last mode, controller extracts maximum power
from PV arrays, while the output voltage is set on a
determined value by controlling the time duration of
switch M2. After replacing the WEC system with PV
arrays in case two, this case will be achieved.

C. Double inputs DC/DC converter

The proposed multi-input dcdc converter is the fusion of
the buck-boost and the buck converter. Syntheses of the multiinput dcdc converter are done by inserting the pulsating
voltage source of the buck converter into the buck-boost
converter, [6]-[7]. In order not to hamper the normal operation
of the buck-boost converter and to utilize the inductor for the
buck converter, the pulsating voltage source of the buck
converter must be series-connected with the output inductor.
Based on the conduction status of the switches M1 and M2,
the multi-inputs dcdc converter has four operation modes.
Fig. 7(a)(d) show the equivalent circuits for Mode I through
Mode IV, respectively. When switches M1 or M2 are turned
off, diodes D1 and D2 will provide a free-wheeling path for the
inductor current. If one of the voltage sources fails, the other
source can still provide the electric energy, normally.
Therefore, this configuration is very suitable for renewable
energy applications.
Eq.4 shows the relationship between input voltages and
output voltage:

VO =

D1
D2
V in 1 +
V in 2
1 D 2
1 D2

( 4)

In Eq.4 D1 and D2 relate to time duration of the power

switches M1 and M2, respectively. In the proposed hybrid
power system, the output voltages of PV arrays and WEC are
considered as Vin1 and Vin2, respectively.
The input-output voltage relationship can be derived from
the steady-state volt-second balance analysis of the inductor.
If M1 has a longer conduction time than M2, then the
equivalent operation circuit for one switching cycle will
follow the sequence of Mode I, Mode III, and Mode IV. On
the other hand, if M2 has a longer conduction time than M1, the
sequence becomes Mode II, Mode III, and Mode IV. In either
case, the output voltage can be expressed as Eq. 4.

Fig. 5. Simulated PV cell in MATLAB/SIMULINK

Fig .6. Output power of PV arrays

To design a controller with the ability to extract maximum

power and set the output voltage to a determined value, two
important issues must be addressed in the following sections:
MPPT algorithms and control strategy.

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit of PV cell

III. CONTROL SYSTEM OF HYBRID POWER SYSTEM

A. MPPT Algorithms
Different MPPT techniques have been proposed in recent
years [9]-[10]. Among these techniques, the perturbation and
observation method is adopted here to fulfill the MPPT
algorithm in this paper, since it is easy to implement and

The proposed controller controls the time duration of power

switches of the double-input DC/DC converter. As the
proposed system consists of two power sources, the control
strategy has two degrees of freedom (DOF), [8]. In other

61

requires fewer measured parameters. In summary, the

operation of this strategy is explained below:
The objective of the P&O method is to determine the
changing direction of the load current. Fig. 8 shows the
flowchart of the MPPT algorithm with P&O method for the
proposed double-input converter. Since there are two
individual input sources, each one of them needs an
independent controller. However, both of the controllers can be
implemented by using one integrated controller.
At the beginning of the control scheme, the output voltage
VO and output current IO of the source (either the PV array or
the wind turbine) are measured, then the output power PO can
be calculated. By comparing the recent values of power and
voltage with previous ones, the P&O method shown in the flow
chart can determine the value of reference current to adjust the
output power toward the maximum point.

controller has been used for this. The output of the PI controller
is the time duration. To feed this time duration to the power
switches, a converter is needed to produce a periodic signal
with the determined time duration. This converter should
receive a frequency and the determined output voltage as input
and produce the corresponding periodic signal. The schematic
of the PI controller has been shown in Fig. 9. The controller in
this simulation should set the output voltage to the determined
value.

TABLE I. CONSTANT PARAMETERS OF PV MODULE

Parameter

Value

K/(J/K)

1.3806505*10^(-23)

q/(C)

1.6*10^(-19)

Ki/(A/K)

0.0017

Tr/(K);

298.15

Ior/(A);

0.2287*10^(-6)

TABLE II.

Fig. 7. Equivalent circuits for the multi-input dcdc converter. (a) Mode I.
(b) Mode II. (c) Mode III. (d) Mode IV.

PARAMETERS OF POLY-CRYSTALLINE PV MODULE

Poly-Crystalline
Isc(A)

8.47

V0(V)

30.10

Ego(V)

10.03

ISRC(A)

8.468

RS()

0.661

RSh()

498.582

60.758

B. Controlling the Output Voltage

To control the output voltage, another controller can control
the time duration of power switches. In this paper, a PI

Fig. 8. Flow chart of the MPPT algorithm with P&O method.

62

the voltage to its reference value by adjusting the time duration

of M1.
At the last scenario, the wind speed increases from 18 m/s to
22 m/s. The proposed controller should set the voltage of the
WEC system DC link. Fig. 12 shows the DC voltage of WEC
system. As it is expected, after increasing the wind speed, the
DC voltage of the WEC system changes. As it was mentioned
in the explanation of the WEC system, at different wind
speeds, the DC voltage, which is proportional to maximum
power, changes too. Therefore, as the figure shows, this
voltage has changed.
Output Voltage
Fig. 9. Schematic Model of Output Voltage Controller

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

In this section, the performance of the proposed power
system has been evaluated. Based on the explanation in the
previous section, three control strategies can be selected for the
hybrid power system. For this part, the purpose of the control
strategy is:
1.
2.

Setting the output voltage at a determined value by

controlling the time duration of the power switch
which is related to the PV arrays (M1).
Extracting maximum power from the WEC system by
controlling the power switch of (M2).

Fig. 10. Output voltage of proposed system after changing of reference voltage

For demonstration purposes, the second strategy, which was

explained in the previous section, has been selected for the
simulation process. The parameters of the simulated system are
listed below:
Temperature: 300 K
Wind speed: 18 m/s
22 m/s
1.1
Irradiation: :1
Reference output voltage: 120 V
160V
To evaluate the performance of the proposed controller,
three different scenarios have been tested. At the first step, the
reference value of the output voltage increase from 120V to
160V at t=5S. Fig. 10 shows the stability and dynamics of the
proposed controller. As mentioned in the previous sections, the
controller sets the proposed voltage by controlling the time
duration of the power switch (M1). Looking at the figure, it is
understood that the proposed controller tracks the reference
voltage in an appropriate time. In other words, it lasts about 4
seconds to set the output voltage to a new reference value.
For the second test, at t=5S, the amount of irradiation has
been increased from =1 to =1.1, while the temperature
equals 300 K. As it is observed at Fig. 11, the output voltage
increases at the beginning of the process but after about 2
seconds, it returns to the reference value. It should be
mentioned that at t=5 S, the time duration of the power switch
(M1) has a constant value. After increasing the irradiation, the
voltage of the PV arrays increase. Therefore, the output voltage
increases suddenly at t=5 S. However, the controller regulates

Fig. 11. Output voltage of proposed system after changing the amount of
irradiation

Fig. 12. WEC voltage of proposed system after changing the wind speed

63

V. CONCLUSION

sources." Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on 53, no. 5

(2006): 1538-1545.
[8] Todorovic, Maja Harfman, Leonardo Palma, and Prasad N.
Enjeti. "Design of a wide input range DCDC converter with a
robust power control scheme suitable for fuel cell power
conversion." Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on 55,
no. 3 (2008): 1247-1255.
[9] Ahmed, Nabil A., A. K. Al-Othman, and M. R. AlRashidi.
"Development of an efficient utility interactive combined
wind/photovoltaic/fuel cell power system with MPPT and DC
bus voltage regulation." Electric Power Systems Research 81,
no. 5 (2011): 1096-1106
[10] Bhatnagar, Pallavee, and R. K. Nema. "Maximum power point
tracking control techniques: State-of-the-art in photovoltaic
applications." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 23
(2013): 224-241.

In this paper, hybrid PV/Wind power system was

simulated. The proposed system consisted of three important
components which are PV arrays, WEC system, and double
input DC/DC converter. Different applicable control strategies
for the proposed system were studied. Two important factors
for designing the controller are extracting maximum power
from power sources, and regulating the output voltage. These
two factors and their details were studied in this paper. To
evaluate the performance of proposed hybrid system, one of
the control strategies was selected, and the simulation results
were studied. Under different conditions, the system responses
were evaluated, and compare with theoretical results.
REFERENCES
[1] Wang, Caisheng, and M. Hashem Nehrir. "Power management
of a stand-alone wind/photovoltaic/fuel cell energy system."
Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on 23, no. 3 (2008):
957-967.
[2] Bajpai, Prabodh, and Vaishalee Dash. "Hybrid renewable energy
systems for power generation in stand-alone applications: A
review." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16, no. 5
(2012): 2926-2939.
[3] Skretas, Sotirios B., and Demetrios P. Papadopoulos. "Efficient
design and simulation of an expandable hybrid (wind
photovoltaic) power system with MPPT and inverter input
voltage regulation features in compliance with electric grid
requirements." Electric Power Systems Research 79, no. 9
(2009): 1271-1285.
[4] Abdullah, M. A., A. H. M. Yatim, C. W. Tan, and R. Saidur. "A
review of maximum power point tracking algorithms for wind
energy systems." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
16, no. 5 (2012): 3220-3227.
[5] Villalva, Marcelo Gradella, and Jonas Rafael Gazoli.
"Comprehensive approach to modeling and simulation of
photovoltaic arrays." Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on
24, no. 5 (2009): 1198-1208.
[6] Chen, Yaow-Ming, Yuan-Chuan Liu, Shih-Chieh Hung, and
Chung-Sheng Cheng. "Multi-input inverter for grid-connected
hybrid PV/wind power system." Power Electronics, IEEE
Transactions on 22, no. 3 (2007): 1070-1077.
[7] Chen, Yaow-Ming, Yuan-Chuan Liu, and Sheng-Hsien Lin.
"Double-input PWM DC/DC converter for high-/low-voltage

64