Design, Modeling and Control Strategy of PV/FC Hybrid Power System

This paper describes development of a general methodology of an autonomous PV/FC system composed of photovoltaic (PV), electrolyzer, hydrogen storage tank and fuel cell (FC). The aim of this paper is to determine optimum design, control strategy, economic and performance of a PV/FC hybrid power generation system without battery storage taking into account all losses in the system. The paper also presents a computer program based on Matlab software to determine optimum design, control strategy, economic and performance of an autonomous PV/FC hybrid power generation system. The computer program develops to size system components in order to match the load of the site with high operational reliability based on loss of power supply probability (LPSP). The proposed system designs for the hybrid power generation in Aswan site, southern of Egypt (24.0875 degrees N latitude, 32.8988 degrees E longitude). From simulation results the system being installed at the Aswan site consists of a 12 MW PV array coupled to a high pressure bipolar alkaline electrolyzer, rated 9.5 MW and fuel cell rated with 2MW. The results show a good optimization performance.