Supervisory control design for systems of multiple sources of energy

This paper describes a supervisory control strategy for electrical energy transfers in multisource renewable energy systems. The sources are coupled onto a DC bus through DC/DC power converters. The aim is to control the energy transfers, according to the sources power and load variations. The controller determines the operating mode of the system. Then, it calculates the power ratio provided by each source and drives the DC/DC power converters with local current and voltage loops in order to regulate the voltage on the DC bus according to a reference value. The main contributions are to use the duty cycle values of the DC/DC power converters as decision criteria to switch the power sources and drive the power ratios, and to present the complete strategy in a single hierarchical control scheme with three stages. A non linear model of the closed loop system is also detailed in order to work out sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability. Finally, the proposed control scheme is validated with an experimental device developed by GREAH Research Group for the control of energy transfers in multisource renewable energy systems. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.