International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality (ICREPQ13)

Bilbao (Spain), 20th to 22th March, 2013

Renewable Energy and Power Quality Journal (RE&PQJ)
ISSN 2172-038 X, No.11, March 2013

Control and simulation of a stand-alone wind-hydrogen generation system

S. Carr1, F. Zhang1, K. Thanapalan2, J. Maddy1, A. Guwy1

1
Sustainable Environment Research Centre (SERC)
Renewable Hydrogen Research and Demonstration Centre
University of Glamorgan
Baglan Energy Park, Baglan
Port Talbot SA12 7AX, UK
Phone/Fax number: +0044 01639 814510, e-mail: [email protected]
2
Sustainable Environment Research Centre
Faculty of Advanced Technology
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd, CF37 1DL, UK

Abstract. The potential to produce hydrogen from renewable convenient to the application. Storage types such as
resources is of considerable interest due to fears over man-made battery storage and hydrogen storage can be considered.
climate change and resource depletion. Hydrogen produced from
renewable resources can be used to generate electricity through a A number of previous studies of stand-alone wind power
fuel cell, or for other uses in a hydrogen economy. There are a systems have been reported. These include systems
number of potential system configurations for hydrogen operating with battery storage [1-3]. Studies considering
production from electrolysis including grid connected and stand- hydrogen generation have focused on the supervisory
alone. In remote locations, stand-alone configurations are of
interest, and may prove more economically viable than grid
control of the system [4], or the control in conjunction
connected systems. In this paper a standalone wind - hydrogen with a battery system [5]. A number of different wind-
generation system is designed and proposed to take advantage of hydrogen systems have been proposed. These include
an electrolyser capable of operating at very low power levels. A those using hydrogen as a storage mechanism for a
dynamic model of the system is presented, along with a standalone system and incorporating an electrolyser,
maximum power point (MPPT) control algorithm of the system. hydrogen storage and a fuel cell [6], with short term
The potential yield of such a wind-hydrogen stand-alone system storage such as batteries also included [5, 7, 8].
located at the University of Glamorgans Hydrogen Centre is Standalone systems using other renewable sources such
investigated using wind speed data collected at the site and the as PV have also been considered [2]. Other papers have
performance of the system under variable wind conditions
determined.
considered systems dedicated solely to renewable-
hydrogen production [4, 9, 10]. A standalone renewable
hydrogen production system can be configured in a
Key words number of ways. A DC bus bar may be used with the DC
voltage imposed by a battery. In this case, as well as the
Wind, Hydrogen, Control, Energy Storage controllable AC/DC conversion system connecting the
wind turbine to the DC bus bar, another DC/DC
1. Introduction converter must be incorporated to connect the
electrolyser to the DC bus bar. It is of interest to keep the
Renewable energy is likely to be increasingly important to system as simple as possible, to help reduce costs,
our future energy supplies. With large amounts of increase efficiency, and improve reliability in stand-alone
renewable energy entering our energy systems in the near scenarios. This can be achieved by removing the DC bus
future, the way we utilise our energy resource is of bar, and connecting the electrolyser directly to the wind
interest. Where resources are not located near to suitable turbine with a controllable AC/DC converter.
electricity infrastructure, the energy generated from the
renewable resource must be used in some other way, or This system configuration was investigated by Battista et
converted to a stored form of energy. In this case, a stand- al [10], who investigated the control of such a system to
alone system must be designed and built. Standalone ensure the electrolyser operated within set parameters
systems may incorporate some form of energy storage in defined by the minimum and maximum electrolyser
order that the generated energy can be used at a time power and ramping rates. Below the minimum
electrolyser power, an auxiliary power supply was
connected to the system. Electrolysers with no minimum C
C2 15
power constraint, that are able to operate at very low C p ( , ) C1 C3 C4 e C6 (2)
current levels (i.e. down to zero power) are desirable, and 1
possible in standalone systems in order to maximise the
amount of energy captured from the wind and converted to
Where
Hydrogen, and to simplify the operation of the system.
1 1 0.035
However, the electrolyser cannot pass current before a 3 (3)
certain minimum voltage is applied across it, affecting the 1 0.08 1
operation of the system on start up. This can be solved by
connecting a capacitor in parallel to the electrolyser, in
order to allow current to flow in the system at start up. Where the parameters C1 to C 6 define the shape of the
C p curve. The tip speed ratio is given by
In this paper, a standalone wind-hydrogen storage system
with no auxiliary power supply is dynamically modelled
and simulated using MATLAB/SimulinkTM and a rwm
maximum power point tracker implemented, in order to
(4)
v
assess the performance of the system. The electrolyser
considered is capable of operating over the full range of
input powers. A 12 kW Proton Exchange Membrane Where r is the turbine blade length (m) and wm is the
(PEM) electrolyser located at the Baglan Hydrogen Centre angular shaft speed (rad/s). The pitch angle is used to
is used as the basis to model the system in order to control the speed of the wind turbine above rated wind
determine the performance of the wind-hydrogen system.
The variation in load which the electrolyser sees, is speeds. C pmax occurs for a given value of tip speed ratio.
determined. The wind turbine is assumed to be connected The goal of controlling variable speed wind generation is
to a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) to ensure the tip speed ratio is at its optimum value as the
wind turbine. In addition, the potential yield from a wind- wind speed varies.
hydrogen plant located at the University of Glamorgans
Hydrogen Centre located at Baglan in South Wales is IDC
determined using historic wind data from the site.
Buck C
PMSG VDC Electrolyser
Converter
2. Wind-Hydrogen System Modelling
Rectifier
The Wind-Hydrogen generation system is shown in Figure d
1. It consists of a 12 kW wind turbine, Permanent magnet
synchronous generator, three phase full bridge diode VDC Speed Control
rectifier, DC/DC buck converter and a PEM electrolyser. IDC

A. Wind Turbine Model Fig. 1. General diagram of the wind-hydrogen generation

system, with variable speed PMSG generator.
The output power of a wind turbine can be calculated
using the well known equation. B. PMSG Model

Av 3 Due to the size and stand-alone nature of the system, a

Pm C p ( , ) (1) permanent magnet synchronous generator is used to
2 convert the power from the wind turbine into electrical.
PMSG is a good option for stand-alone systems due to
where, Pm is the mechanical output of the turbine, C p is their self-excitation and high efficiency [11, 12]. The
the power coefficient of the turbine, is the air density, PMSG allows the wind turbine to operate at variable
speeds to maximize the power extracted from the wind.
A is the swept area of the turbine, v is the wind speed, The PMSG is modelled in its rotating dq reference frame.
is the tip speed ratio and is the blade pitch angle. The equations governing the PMSG are given by
The wind turbine has a cut in speed of 3 m/s and produces
its maximum power at 12 m/s. At wind speeds above
12m/s the power output of the turbine remains constant.
d
id
1
vd Rs id Lq weiq (5)
dt Ld
C p (, ) can be modelled as a generic equation based on
the turbine characteristics
d
dt
iq
1
Lq

vq Rs iq Ld we id we (6)

with the electromagnetic torque given by

 electrolyser to allow current to flow and voltage to build
Te 1.5 piq ( Ld Lq )iq id (7) up in start up mode, and to provide additional filtering of
the electrolyser current in production mode.

Where i d , iq , vd and v q are the d and q axis currents and In this case, on start up, the load voltage, VLoad is given
voltages respectively, Ld and Lq are the d and q axis by the voltage induced across the capacitor.
stator inductances, we pwm is the electrical rotational
1
C
speed, is the flux linkage, and p is the number of VLoad i0 dt (11)
PMSG pole pairs.

The shaft connecting the wind turbine to the PMSG is Where C is the capacitance of the capacitor. Once the
modelled as; load voltage reaches Vr , current will flow through the
electrolyser as well. This current, ielec is given by
wm Te Tm Bwm
d 1
(8) d
dt J ielec i0 C Vload (12)
dt
Where J is the inertia of the PMSG and B is the shaft
Pm The load voltage is then equal to Velec defined by
friction co-efficient. Tm is the mechanical torque. equation (10). In steady state, the electrolyser current is
wm equal to the load current. The hydrogen production rate is
calculated from the electrolyser current using Faradays
C. Rectifier and DC/DC converter law.

The three phase AC power from the PMSG is rectified to As the PMSG is connected to the DC load through a
DC power and then filtered and connected to the diode bridge rectifier, the load presents as a purely active
electrolyser via a DC/DC buck converter. The duty cycle load to the PMSG [13]. In this case vd and v q can be
of the buck converter is controlled so that the DC bus
voltage is such that the wind turbine rotational speed calculated by;
follows the maximum power point. The rectifier is
modelled as a full bridge diode rectifier, whilst the buck V sid
converter is modelled as an ideal converter, with the ratio vd (13)
between the input and output voltage defined by the duty iq2 id2
cycle d . The current output by the rectifier and DC/DC V siq
converter is given by equation [13]; vq (14)
iq2 id2
iq2 id2
i0 (9)
Where V s is the stator voltage given by
2d 3
The electrolyser is modelled using its current - voltage Vload
curve. This curve represents a 12 kW PEM electrolyser.
Vs (15)
3d 3
As mentioned above, the electrolyser is able to operate
over the full range of its IV curve.
D. Maximum Power Point Extraction
The electrolyser current voltage curve is represented by;
The wind turbine will extract the maximum power from

Velec Vr Aielec B lg(1 Cielec ) (10)

the wind only at a certain tip speed ratio opt . Below
rated wind speed, this value of opt
defines the optimum
Where A , B and C are parameters which define the curve. coefficient of power of the system C popt . This means that
This means that no current can pass through the as the wind speed varies, the rotational speed of the wind
electrolyser below a certain voltage ( V r ) being applied turbine must vary to find the maximum power point. The
across it. This causes a problem at start up of the PMSG connected wind turbine is a variable speed wind
electrolyser as if no current can pass through the circuit, turbine, and the rotational speed is directly related to the
The PMSG cannot begin to generate. In the full system, voltage at the generator terminals. The rotational speed of
the rectifier will have a filter capacitor, as will the buck the wind turbine is measured and used to derive a
converter, which would allow some current to flow, reference power output from a turbine operating with an
however they are not designed for this purpose. To optimum tip speed ratio at this rotational speed.
overcome this, a capacitor is placed in parallel to the
 Pm* K opt wg
3
(16)

Where

r
K opt 0.5AC popt (17)
opt

where r is the radius of the wind turbine. This will only Fig. 2. Wind turbine MPPT performance reference maximum
reach a maximum for a given rotational speed. The power production, simulated power production and DC power
rotational speed of the PMSG is directly related to the DC after a step change in wind speed from 12 m/s to 3 m/s to 8 m/s
voltage. The reference power output is used to generate a
reference DC current by dividing it by the DC voltage. The Figure 3 shows the voltage response of the system to step
duty cycle of the DC/DC converter is controlled using a PI changes in wind output. It can be seen how the DC
controller to follow the reference current and ensure that voltage alters in response to wind speed changes to
the PMSG follows the maximum power point [14]. maintain the maximum power point. Figure 4 shows the
current response and hydrogen production. It can be seen
E. Baglan Wind Energy Resource that the capacitor draws current on start up until
sufficient voltage is achieved for the electrolyser to draw
The average recorded wind speed at the Baglan hydrogen current, and when the load voltage changes.
centre was recorded as 3.48 m/s for the year 2010. The
wind speed data is available in 5 minute time steps at 1m/s
resolution. The recorded wind speed for the month of
November is shown in Figure 5. Whilst the average wind
speed at Baglan is relatively low, it can be seen from
Figure 2 that there are extended periods when the wind is
at sufficient speed to drive the turbine and so produce
Hydrogen.

The average wind speed varies between months as shown

in Table 1, with the highest found to be 4.64 m/s in July, a)
and the lowest 1.83 m/s in December.

F. Annual hydrogen production

The expected hydrogen production at a given wind speed

in the steady state is worked out using the model presented
in Section A, This hydrogen production rate is then used to
calculate the expected average daily and total annual yield
from a stand-alone wind hydrogen system located at the
Baglan Hydogen Centre.
b)
3. Results

A) Dynamic modelling results

The wind turbine power output compared to maximum

power point is shown in Figure 2 after a step changes in
the wind speed. The DC power produced is also shown.
The results demonstrate that the MPPT works with the
turbine output achieving the maximum power point in
steady state. The DC power output is lower than the c)
maximum power point due to losses in the system. Fig. 3. Change in system parameters with wind speed steps
from 12 m/s to 3 m/s to 8 m/s. a) wind speed, b) DC voltage, c)
Load voltage
 30

25

Wind Speed (m/s)

20

15

10

0
a) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Day of Month

Fig. 5. Recorded Baglan wind speed for November 2010

0.02

Hydrogen Production Rate (mol/s)

0.018
0.016
0.014
0.012
0.01
b) 0.008
0.006
0.004
0.002
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Day of Month

Fig. 6. Hydrogen production for November 2010

Figure 5 shows the variation in wind speed over one

c) month, whilst Figure 6 shows the concurrent hydrogen
Fig. 4. Change in load current flows and Hydrogen production production. In total, the proposed system would produce
when wind speed steps from 12 m/s to 5 m/s to 8 m/s.a)capacitor 269 kg of hydrogen in the year analysed. By month, the
current, b) electrolyser current, c) hydrogen generation. average daily hydrogen production shows a large range
with a minimum of 0.27 kg/day produced in December,
B) Baglan Hydrogen Centre Production and a maximum of 1.10 kg/day produced in September.
Even in December with a very low average wind speed
The hydrogen production rate at wind speeds from 3 m/s regime of 1.8 m/s, a total of 8.34 kg of hydrogen can be
to 12 m/s is determined based on the model presented in produced.
section 2. This is used to calculate the monthly and overall
hydrogen production yields for the Baglan Hydrogen 4. Discussion
Centre. This is presented in Table I below.
The electrolyser considered in this paper has the ability to
Table I. - Monthly wind speeds and potential hydrogen operate at a very low power levels compared to its rated
production at Baglan Hydrogen Centre
power. The electrolyser is based on a proton exchange
membrane electrolyser. With some electrolyser
MONTH AVERAGE AVERAGE TOTAL
WIND HYDROGEN HYDROGEN technologies, such a low turn down rate may not be
SPEED PRODUCTION PRODUCTION achievable, and other control strategies, such as
(m/s) (kg/day) (kg) combining the electrolyser with a battery must be
January 3.4 0.79 24.5 considered [5].
February 2.9 0.53 15.0
March 3.8 0.78 24.3 The simulation in this paper considers the power
April 3.0 0.59 17.6 electronic interfaces (full bridge ac/dc rectifier and dc/dc
May buck converter) as simple average models, i.e. the
2.5 0.45 13.8
June
DC/DC converter is represented by the voltage ratio
3.0 0.54 16.2
imposed by its duty cycle. In a real system, the inductive
July 4.6 1.06 32.7
and capacitive components of the DC/DC buck converter
August 3.7 0.75 23.2 should be considered as well as the switching frequency.
September 4.6 1.10 32.9 This will affect the control of the system, as well as
October 4.3 1.05 32.5 impose an additional variability on the current entering
November 4.0 0.94 28.2 the electrolyser. This variability may be reduced by
December 1.8 0.27 8.34 increasing the filtering on the output of the DC/DC
Total 3.48 0.74 269
converter. Variability of the electrolyser power input can [3] F. Valenciaga and P. Puleston, "Supervisor Control
result in reduced performance [2]. for a Stand-Alone Hybrid Generation System Using
Wind and Photovoltaic Energy," IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion, vol. 20, pp. 398-405, June
5. Conclusions 2005 2005.
[4] H. de Battista, R. J. Mantz, and F. Garelli, "Power
A stand-alone wind-hydrogen system based on a PEM conditioning for a wind-hydrogen energy system,"
electrolyser is developed and modelled using Journal of Power Sources, vol. 155, pp. 478-486, Apr
MATLAB/SimulinkTM. A control strategy to extract the 2006.
maximum power from the wind, and so ensure maximum [5] F. Valenciaga and C. A. Evangelista, "Control design
hydrogen production, is included. The performance of the for an autonomous wind based hydrogen production
system under step changes in wind speed is assessed, in system," International Journal of Hydrogen Energy,
vol. 35, pp. 5799-5807, Jun 2010.
order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MPPT, and [6] M. J. Khan and M. T. Iqbal, "Analysis of a small
the viability of the proposed system. The performance of wind-hydrogen stand-alone hybrid energy system,"
the system in steady state is used to determine the Applied Energy, vol. 86, pp. 2429-2442, Nov 2009.
hydrogen production rates for different wind speeds. These [7] M. Little, M. Thomson, and D. Infield, "Electrical
results are used to determine the potential yield from such integration of renewable energy into stand-alone
a system located at the University of Glamorgans power supplies incorporating hydrogen storage,"
Hydrogen Centre at Baglan Energy Park from recorded International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 32,
wind speed data. It is seen that the proposed system works pp. 1582-1588, Jul-Aug 2007.
well under varying wind speed, and the MPPT is capable [8] O. C. Onar, M. Uzunoglu, and M. S. Alam, "Dynamic
modeling, design and simulation of a wind/fuel
of tracking the maximum power point. The system cell/ultra-capacitor-based hybrid power generation
functions at start up, with all generated current entering the system," Journal of Power Sources, vol. 161, pp. 707-
capacitor, until sufficient voltage has been achieved for the 722, Oct 2006.
electrolyser to start producing hydrogen. Hydrogen can be [9] S. M. Muyeen, R. Takahashi, and J. Tamura,
produced throughout the year even in months with low "Electrolyzer switching strategy for hydrogen
average wind speeds. generation from variable speed wind generator,"
Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 81, pp. 1171-
1179, May 2011.
Acknowledgement [10] A. G. Dutton, J. A. M. Bleijs, H. Dienhart, M.
Falchetta, W. Hug, D. Prischich, and A. J. Ruddell,
This work was supported by the CymruH2Wales project, "Experience in the design, sizing, economics, and
part of the Low Carbon Research Institute (LCRI) implementation of autonomous wind-powered
Convergence Programme. The CymruH2Wales project has hydrogen production systems," International Journal
been supported by the European Regional Development of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 25, pp. 705-722, Aug 2000.
Fund (ERDF) through the (Llywodraeth Cymru) Welsh [11] M. E. Haque, M. Negnevitsky, and K. M. Muttaqi, "A
Government. Novel Control Strategy for a Variable-Speed Wind
Turbine With a Permanent-Magnet Synchronous
Generator," IEEE Transactions on Industry
Applications, vol. 46, pp. 331-339, Jan-Feb 2010.
References [12] C. N. Bhende, S. Mishra, and S. G. Malla,
"Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator-Based
[1] M. Druga, C. Nichita, G. Barakat, and E. Ceanga, Standalone Wind Energy Supply System,"
"Stand-Alone Wind Power System Operating with a Sustainable Energy, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 2, pp.
Specific Storage Structure," presented at the 361-373, 2011.
International Conference on Renewable Energies and [13] F. Valenciaga, P. F. Puleston, and P. E. Battaiotto,
Power Quality, Valencia, Spain, 2009. "Power control of a solar/wind generation system
[2] S. G. Tesfahunegn, O. Ulleberg, P. J. S. Vie, and T. M. without wind measurement: A passivity/sliding mode
Undeland, "Optimal shifting of Photovoltaic and load approach," IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion,
fluctuations from fuel cell and electrolyzer to lead acid vol. 18, pp. 501-507, Dec 2003.
battery in a Photovoltaic/hydrogen standalone power [14] M. E. Haque, K. M. Muttaqi, M. Negnevitsky, and
system for improved performance and life time," Ieee, Control of a Stand Alone Variable Speed Wind
Journal of Power Sources, vol. 196, pp. 10401-10414, Turbine with a Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Dec 2011. Generator. New York: IEEE, 2008.