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Published in IET Renewable Power Generation

Received on 1st April 2009
Revised on 20th October 2009
doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2009.0033

ISSN 1752-1416

Design and implementation of a hybrid

regenerative power system combining grid – tie
and uninterruptible power supply functions
H.C. Chiang1 T.T. Ma1 Y.H. Cheng1 J.M. Chang2
W.N. Chang2
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, National United University, Miao-Li, Taiwan
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chang Gung University, Miao-Li, Taiwan
E-mail: sjchiang@nuu.edu.tw

Abstract: A hybrid regenerative power system including photovoltaic (PV) and wind powers and combining the
functions of the grid – tie system and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for critical load applications is
presented. The proposed system employs six-arm converter topology with three arms for the rectifier –
inverter, one arm for battery charging/discharging and two arms for power conversion of the PV module and
wind turbine generator. The operation modes include the grid –tie mode and the UPS mode depending on the
grid status. A power balance control scheme is presented, which can reduce the grid power and utilise the
regenerative power in the most effective way for fulfilling the two requirements of a three-stage charging of
the battery and no interruption of the load. Also, the PV and wind powers can be utilised with priority in
order to provide the flexibility for adapting to local circumstances. A single-phase 1.2 kW/110 V system is
designed and implemented, and the effectiveness of the proposed system and control methodology are
verified with some experimental results.

1 Introduction reported that in weak grids, the WTG/PV hybrid system

Due to the fact that environmental concerns have constrained
the use of polluted energy resources for electric power
generation, the interest in looking for possible alternatives
concerning clean and renewable energy sources is growing
worldwide. The increasing number of renewable energy
sources and distributed generators requires new control
strategies for the operation and management of the power
converters in order to maintain the reliability and improve
the flexibility and quality of the new power supply system
embedded with complex energy conversion units. In recent
years, the wind turbine generator (WTG) and photovoltaic
(PV) generation technologies have brought opportunities
for utilising wind and solar resources for electric power
generation. It is well known that renewable energy sources
have unpredictable random behaviours; however, some of
them, such as solar radiation and wind speed, have
complementary features in many aspects. It has been
is better than a single WTG or PV generation since it
suppresses rapid changes in the output power of the single
source such as the wind turbine system [1, 2]. In addition,
based on the research results reported in [3, 4], the grid
interface of the WTG/PV hybrid system equipped with a
battery storage unit can greatly improve the system
reliability and operating flexibility. Based on the operating
functions, there are a number of possible system
configurations in designing the WTG/PV hybrid system as
shown in Fig. 1. The stand-alone system configuration
shown in Fig. 1a can provide a well-regulated load voltage
but the reliability of power supply cannot be fully
guaranteed [5]. To overcome the above shortcoming,
Fig. 1b shows a grid-supported stand-alone system
configuration that has a well-regulated load voltage and also
has a reliable charging source for the battery bank [6]. In
low-battery voltage applications such as those shown in
Figs. 1a and 1b, the DC-to-DC Converter 3 is required to

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Figure 1 Possible system configuration in designing the WTG/PV hybrid system

a The stand-alone system
b The grid-supported stand-alone system configuration
c The grid – tie hybrid system configuration
d The combined stand-alone and grid –tie configuration
e The combined UPS and grid –tie configuration

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boost the voltage to a level that is high enough for the rear
stage DC-to-AC Inverter; otherwise this stage can be
omitted. A grid – tie hybrid system allowing the injection of
extra power from the WTG and PV to the grid is shown
in Fig. 1c [7]. In some design cases, the stand-alone and
grid – tie configurations are combined as shown in Fig. 1d
to achieve better operating flexibility [8, 9]. It should be
noted that the load voltage in these two configurations is
not regulated and will be floating with the grid voltage. So,
for the critical load applications, the configuration
combining on-line uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
shown in Fig. 1e [10] must be used. Although Burgio et al.
[10] have demonstrated the operation and reliability of the
system, detailed converter circuit, control algorithm and
power management of the system have not been presented
till now. In this paper, we propose a six-arm converter
topology with three arms for the UPS rectifier– inverter
and three arms for the PV, WTG and battery to combine
the on-line UPS and the grid –tie regenerative power
system. A novel power balance control scheme is presented.
It is designed so as to reduce the grid power and utilise the
regenerative power in the most effective way and, most
importantly, to satisfy the two requirements of a three-stage
charging of the battery for a high state of charge and no
interruption of the load for high reliability. In addition, the
utilisation of PV and wind powers can be designed with
priority. This feature is important for adapting to weather
variations and local circumstances to enhance the flexibility
and performance of the system. The detailed modelling and
controller design of the converter is provided. A single-
phase 1.2 kW/110 V system is designed and implemented,
and the effectiveness of the proposed system and control
methodology is verified with some experimental results.
2 Circuit configuration and
operation mode of the proposed
hybrid generation system
2.1 System description and operating
modes
According to the status of the grid, the proposed system can
be divided into the grid – tie mode and the UPS mode. In
practical operations, the grid – tie mode and the UPS mode
also can be catalogued into two and three operation modes,
respectively, based on various conditions of the PV, WTG,
battery bank and the grid. In the grid –tie mode, the PV
and WTG are operated at their maximum power point
(MPP). As shown in Fig. 2a, if the total output power
from the PV and WTG is higher than the load demand
and the charging need of the battery bank, the extra power
is injected into the grid. This is called the grid feed mode.
On the contrary, if the total output power from the PV and
WTG is less than the load demand and the charging need
of the battery bank, the insufficient power is supplied from
the grid as shown in Fig. 2b, this is called the grid supply
mode. In the case of an abnormal grid condition detected,
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the UPS mode is activated to avoid a power interruption of
the load. In this case, if the total power from the PV and
WTG is less than the load demand, the battery bank
discharges power to compensate for the gap of total power
demand from the load as shown in Fig. 2c; this is called
the discharge mode. If the total power from the PV and
WTG is greater than the load demand and the charging
need from the battery, the WTG has a higher priority to
remain in its MPP operation and the MPPT control
function of the PV module is stopped as shown in Fig. 2d.
This is called the partial MPPT mode, whose aim is to
ensure a stable DC-link voltage and a balance power flow
between the hybrid generation system and the load. For the
same power balance reasons, if just the output power from
the WTG is higher than the load demand and the
charging need, then the PV module is off and the MPPT
function of the WTG should also be stopped immediately
as shown in Fig. 2e; this is called the OFF MPPT mode.
In the above partial MPPT mode and OFF MPPT mode,
the WTG power is designed to be with higher priority than
the PV power. There can also be PV power having higher
priority. The best design has to consider many factors such
as the daytime, nighttime, the season, the local weather
condition, the wind condition and so on. The objective is
to utilise the regenerative power in the most effective way
and thus reduce the grid power as much as possible on the
premise of ensuring system stability. For example, if the
wind condition is very stable, it is best to have higher
priority, since deviating from the MPP of PV is faster and
easier. On the contrary, if the wind is not consistent but
the PV power is very stable it is better to be with PV
having higher priority. The priority can be easily switched
if the operation modes are judged with a program. In the
above grid supply mode, the operation can also turn to be
in grid feed mode if the system is designed to have the
energy storage function at the peak load period of the grid.
2.2 Converter configuration of the
proposed system
To achieve the grid – tie and UPS functions and satisfy all
possible operating modes of the proposed hybrid system, a
six-arm power converter topology shown in Fig. 3 is
employed in this paper. As shown in Fig. 3, the ABC arms
constitute a common neutral-line single-phase rectifier –
inverter [11], whereas the DEF arms are, respectively,
designed for the power conversions of PV, WTG and the
charging/discharging operation of the battery bank. In
the grid –tie operating mode, the A-arm is used to regulate
the DC-link voltage and ensure a unity power factor by
controlling the current of the grid. As the grid failure has
been detected the A-arm is not operated under the UPS
operating mode. The C-arm is designed for inverter
operation and controlled to provide the load a low
distorted, sinusoidal voltage all the time. The PV and
WTG, respectively, use the D-arm and E-arm to boost
their terminal voltages up to the designed voltage level of
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Figure 2 Operation modes of the proposed system

a The grid feed mode
b The grid supply mode
c The discharge mode

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Figure 2 Continued
d The partial MPPT mode
e The OFF MPPT mode

the DC-link. The F-arm is utilised to control the charging of
the battery bank in the grid – tie operation mode and is turned
to regulate the DC-link voltage and allow the charging and
discharging of the battery bank under the UPS operating
mode as shown in Figs. 2c – e.
3 System modelling and design of
outer loops are, respectively, dedicated for the DC-link voltage
regulation and the AC voltage controller. For designing the
related controllers, the three-arm mathematical models of
the rectifier/inverter must be derived first. Based on Fig. 4 the
equations describing the inductor currents on both the
rectifier and inverter sides can be expressed by Kirhoff’s
voltage law (KVL) as follows

controllers dIs
L ¼ VAN  VBN  Vs (1)
3.1 Modelling the three-arm rectifier– dt
inverter
dIC
As addressed previously, the control structure shown in Fig. 4 is L ¼ VCN  VBN  Vo (2)
used for the proposed three-arm rectifier–inverter. The dual dt
loop control strategy is implemented in the design of
controllers for both rectifier and inverter operations. The inner If sinusoidal pulse width modulation (PWM) is employed for
loop is designed for inductor current control, whereas the each of the three arms and the high-order switching terms are

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Figure 3 Proposed six-arm converter topology

neglected, one can derive the following output voltage equation and inverter currents, the B-arm control voltage can be
  assigned as follows
1 vconi
ViN ¼ þ V , i ¼ A, B, C (3) Vo
2 2vtm d vconB ¼  (6)
2kpwm
where vconi is the control voltage of the i-arm (i ¼ A, B, C), and Using (6), (4) and (5) can be rewritten as follows
vtm is the triangular wave amplitude of the PWM. By putting
(3) into (1) and (2), the following voltage equations can be dIs V
L ¼ kpwm vconA þ o  Vs (7)
obtained dt 2
dIs V V dI V
L ¼ d vconA  d vconB  Vs (4) L C ¼ kpwm vconC  o (8)
dt 2vtm 2vtm dt 2

dIC V V The kpwm in (6) and (7) can be seen as the voltage gain of the
L ¼ d vconC  d vconB  Vo (5) converter and has the following form
dt 2vtm 2vtm
Vd
Equations (4) and (5) indicate that both the output currents of kpwm ¼ (9)
2vtm
the rectifier and inverter are affected by the control voltage of the
B-arm (vconB ). To achieve a decoupled control of the rectifier The output current equation of the capacitor on the inverter side
is given by

dVo
Co ¼ IC  IL (10)
dt

Based the above derived equations, the related current and

voltage controllers can be designed.

3.2 Design of controllers for the three-

Figure 4 Control structure of the ABC-arm
arm rectifier–inverter
Based on (7), the power circuit and the related control block
diagram are shown in Fig. 5. The ks and kv are, respectively,
the sensing factors of current and voltage signals. In Fig. 5,
the current controller utilises both feedback and feed
forward controllers. The control signal vo/2 2 vsn can be
used to eliminate the interference on current loop caused
by the Vs and Vo/2. The vo is the inverter voltage
command and the vsn is the nominal voltage of the input
voltage. The relations of parameters in the current feedback

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Figure 5 Related control block diagram

loop can be obtained and expressed mathematically as follows order ripple in the DC voltage. The average power of the
DC side equals the DC term of the input power on the
is (ks k1 kpwm =L) uR ks k1 kpwm AC side

¼ ¼ , uR ¼ (11)
is s þ (ks k1 kpwm =L) s þ uR L
P AC ¼ PDC (13)
In (11), the uR is the bandwidth of the input current loop and
can be set by k1 . In a normal design criterion, the bandwidth By reflecting the AC current source to the DC side, the
is designed as 1/10– 1/5 of the switching frequency. The equivalent circuit can be obtained as shown in Fig. 6b.
current command (i s) of the rectifier is generated from the Using (13), the following relations can be derived
DC voltage controller Gv by multiplying a synchronous
sinusoidal signal (sin vt) to the control error of the voltage Vs(p) Im
¼ Vd Id (14)
regulating loop. The design of Gv can be accomplished by 2
deriving the small signal model of the DC voltage loop
using Fig. 6a of the unity power factor equivalent circuit. Vs(p) Im
Id ¼ ¼ kDC Im (15)
Due to the fact that the DC-link has connections with 2Vd
other converters and the grid, the DC interface can be
simply modelled by a DC capacitor [12]. The input power The mathematical model of the voltage loop can be
on the AC side is given by formulated by expressing the charging action of Cd by
using the DC current source Id
PAC ¼ Vs(p) sin vt  Im sin vt ¼ P AC þ P~ AC2
Vd kDC Vs(p)
Vs(p) Im Vs(p) Im ¼ , kDC ¼ (16)
¼  cos 2vt (12) Im sCd 2Vd
2 2

As expressed in (12), the AC power includes a DC term

and a second-order harmonics that produces the second-

Figure 6 Modelling of the DC-link voltage control link Figure 7 DC-link voltage controller design
a Power flow on the rectifier side a Voltage control loop
b Equivalent circuit on the DC-link capacitor side b Bode plot of voltage

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Using Fig. 7a, the voltage controller Gv can be developed.
Because in this design case, the bandwidth of the current
loop is much wider than that of the voltage loop, the
current loop response of (11) can be simplified as ideal

(¼1) and the gain of Is/Im is the inverse of current sensing
factor ks . The bode plot of the voltage loop HDC is
presented in Fig. 7b. As addressed previously, the DC
voltage contains the second-order harmonics. Therefore it
is necessary to design the bandwidth of the voltage loop to
be much lower than 120 Hz to reduce the second-order
voltage ripple. In this paper, the type II compensator
(PI þ Low-Pass) is used in designing Gv . For comparison
purposes, the close-loop response of using PI control is also
shown in Fig. 7b.
For presenting the design of related controllers for the
inverter, the proposed control block diagram is shown in
Fig. 8a. The power circuit within the dashed line is made
from (8) and (10). The design of the current control loop
is also combining feedback and feed forward techniques.
The disturbance of Vo/2 on the current loop can be
eliminated by the voltage command vo =2. The response of
the current loop can be derived from the feedback loop and
expressed as follows
iC (ks k2 kpwm =L) uI ks k2 kpwm
 ¼ ¼ , uI ¼ (17)
iC s þ (ks k2 kpwm =L) s þ uI L
In (17), uI is the bandwidth of the current loop and can be
designed with the same criterion as that used for uR and
directly set by k2 . For the same reason addressed previously,
the response of (17) can be assumed as 1 and the control
Figure 8 Inverter controller design
a Detailed control block diagram
b The simplified voltage control loop
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block diagram of the voltage loop can be simplified and
shown in Fig. 8b. Based on the same approach, both the
feedback and feed forward techniques are used in designing
the voltage controller, in which the interference on voltage
loop caused by the load current is eliminated by the
feedback signal of load current. The response of the voltage
control loop can be derived from Fig. 8b as follows
vo (kv k3 =ks C) uv
¼ ¼ (18)
vo s þ (kv k3 =ks C) s þ uv
In (18), the uv is the bandwidth of the voltage loop and can be
directly calculated as uI/4 and set by k3 .
3.3 Modelling and controller design of
the DEF arms
Based on the need of balancing power flow and performing
the energy management functions developed in all
operating modes shown in Fig. 2, the required controllers
designed for the DEF arms are presented in Fig. 9a. For
both the PV module and WTG, the same control structure
can be applied; that is, the outer loop is designed for
performing MPPT functions and to give the voltage
commands, whereas the inner loop is dedicated for the
required voltage controller to track the voltage commands.
The duty parameters for the converters can then be decided
by the regulated voltages operating with a PWM unit.
Since the F-arm is designed for charging and discharging
the battery bank, regulating DC-link voltage and balancing
power in real time, the related controllers are to be designed.
In Fig. 9a, MS1–MS3 are, respectively, the mode selecting
switches for the PV, WTG and battery charger. In the grid–
tie operating mode, as shown in Figs. 2a and b, the DC-link
voltage is regulated by the rectifier (A-arm) of the three-arm
rectifier–inverter. Both MS1 and MS2 are set to 0 to allow
the PV and WTG to be operated at their MPP by the
designed MPPT controllers, and the MS3 of the battery-
arm (F-arm) is switched to receive the control signals from
the battery charger. The charging current command is
obtained from the voltage regulator of the charge controller
with a limiter for setting the constant charging current level.
The inner control loop of the charging controller is a current
regulator designed to track the charging current command
via a PWM control signal.
When a grid blackout occurs, the system is switched to the
UPS mode and the rectifier-arm (A-arm) of the three-arm
rectifier– inverter is stopped. In this case, the MS3 will
immediately connect the control signal of the battery-arm
to the output of the DC voltage controller to take over the
DC-link voltage regulation. For preventing over-current
during the grid –tie mode and UPS-mode transition
period, the battery-arm has added a current limitation loop
to provide damping of the response and protect the power
switches as well. Besides regulating the DC voltage for
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Figure 9 Controller design of the DEF arms
a The required controllers designed for the DEF arms
b Active regions of the braking resistor
performing the power balance function, the battery-arm still
takes care of the battery charging. The power balance control
function is achieved by connecting the output of the charging
controller to a number of limiters to obtain the control signals
of VL1 and VL2 used by MS1 and MS2 under this operating
mode. As stated in the previous section, in the UPS operating
mode, the function of MPPT used in the PV and WTG is
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handled by a criterion considering the balance of the
system power and the security of the WTG system. To
have a clear picture of the proposed energy arrangement
concepts, Figs. 2c – e depict three typical operating
conditions. In Fig. 2c, the maximum output power from
the PV and WTG is not enough for the load demand;
thus the battery bank is discharging to support the DC-
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link voltage and to cover the power gap of load demand.
Because charge current (Ib) in Fig. 9 is negative, the output
of the charge controller will be positive and will be limited
by the positive limiter of the power balance controller. VL
will be zero and thus VL1 ¼ VL2 ¼ 0; as a result, both
voltages calculated from the MPPT controllers of the PV
and WTG will not change. PV and WTG will operate at
their MPP voltages.
As shown in Figs. 2d and e, when the output power of the
PV module and WTG is sufficient for supplying the load
demand and the need of charging the battery bank, the
battery-arm is controlled to support the DC voltage at a
preset value via charging the battery bank. Before the
charging current (Ib) can reach its command (I b) in
Fig. 9a, the output of the charge controller will still be
positive and be limited by the positive limiter of the power
balance controller. As a result the limiting voltage will be
VL ¼ VL1 ¼ VL2 ¼ 0, PV and WTG will thus operate at
their MPP voltages. When the charge current (Ib) can
attain the charge current command (I b) in Fig. 9a, VL will
be negative. If VL is not negative enough to reach the limit
of the negative limiter, VL ¼ VL1 and VL2 ¼ 0. VL1 will
increase the voltage command calculated by the PV MPPT
controller but VL2 will not change the voltage command
generated by the WTG MPPT controller. Therefore the
PV module will deviate from its MPP and WTG still stay
at MPP as shown in Fig. 2d. On the contrary, if VL is
negative enough to reach the limit of the negative limiter,
VL ¼ VL1 and VL2 ¼ VL 2 VL1 = 0, then VL1 and VL2 will
increase the voltage command calculated by the MPPT
controllers of PV and WTG. The limit level of the
negative limiter is set such that the PV module can attain
its open circuit voltage such that the PV module output
power is zero and the load power and battery charge power
are all supplied by the WTG as shown in Fig. 2e. It should
be noted that the operating point of the PV and WTG can
be shifted to the negative slope region or the positive slope
region of the power curve at the OFF MPPT mode. The
negative slope region in the power curve is a nature-
unstable region. Shifting of the operating point to this
region should ensure stability by closed-loop control.
However, the negative slope region has the significant
advantage of higher voltage, which is beneficial in converter
efficiency for the voltage step-up applications. Therefore
the operating point in this paper is designed to be the
negative slope region in the OFF MPPT mode of the PV
and WTG. The stability in this region is controlled
through the voltage loop control of WTG and PV. The
only problem in this region is that the WTG may
experience an over-speed situation as the wind speed is
increased too much at the OFF MPPT mode. As a result,
the system is equipped with a chopper and a braking
control unit to control the braking resistor with PWM to
dissipate the excessive energy. In addition, the chopper and
braking resistor should also be active as the wind speed is
too high in order to limit the maximum power of the
WTG. The active region of the braking resistor is shown
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in Fig. 9b. To achieve the above functions, the braking
control unit possesses a constant power controller and a
constant speed controller. The constant power controller
will produce a control voltage of the PWM aimed to limit
the maximum output power of the WTG as the wind
speed is too high. The constant speed controller will
produce a control voltage of the PWM aimed to regulate
the WTG voltage in order to limit the rotor speed for
preventing attainment of the cut-off speed at the normal
wind speed. It should be noted that because of the boost
topology of the WTG arm, the WTG voltage will be
limited by the DC-link voltage and the WTG speed will
thus be limited. If the cut-off speed is set such that its
corresponding WTG voltage is larger than the DC-link
voltage, the cut-off speed will not be reached except that
the braking resistor does not have enough capability to
absorb the OFF MPPT energy such that the DC-link
voltage is raised to the cut-off voltage.
3.4 Design of input voltage controllers for
the PV and WTG converters
Due to that fact that the same control structure and design
method can be used for developing the related voltage
controllers used in the PV and WTG, in this subsection, only
the design details concerning the PV module are addressed.
In this particular application case, the voltage to be regulated
is on the input side of the converter rather than the voltage at
its output terminal. To design the voltage controller, the
transfer function describing the input voltage and the
controlled voltage must be derived first. The designed
converter system can be treated as a boost-type converter as
shown in Fig. 10, in which the outputs of PV or WTG are
modelled as a current source. Although the PV module
characteristic is equivalent to a voltage source in series with a
resistance near the MPP as well as the negative dP/dVp
region, it can also be equivalent to a current source like the
positive dP/dVp region by employing Norton’s theorem. As
for the WTG, the large stator inductance and low rotating
speed make the three-phase rectified current slow-varying and
continuous and it also can be seen as a current source in
modelling the converter, the switching frequency of which is
much higher than that of the current variation.
Figure 10 Designed boost-type converter
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Based on the parameters labelled in Fig. 10, the following

equations can be formulated
dIi
L ¼ Vp  (1  D)Vd (19)
dt
dV
C ¼ Ip  Ii (20)
dt
dV
Re C þ V ¼ Vp (21)
dt
In the continuous current mode (CCM), the ratio of input
voltage and output voltage must satisfy the following
expression

Vp ¼ (1  D)Vd (22)

In the steady state

Ip ¼ Ii (23)

Applying a small disturbance to (19) –(21) and using Figure 11 Design of the input voltage controller for PV and
linearisation techniques, one can have the small signal WTG
model of the converter formulated as follows a Control block diagram
b Frequency response of the input voltage control loop
dI~ i
L ¼ V~ p þ Vd D
~ (24)
dt the incremental conductance method for PV and the
hill-climb searching (HCS) method for WTG. Let us take
dV~
C ¼ I~ i (25) the PV module as an example to address the control
dt actions of the proposed MPPT. Fig. 12a shows the P–V
dV~ characteristic of the PV module used. In the positive slope
Re C þ V~ ¼ V~ p (26) region (dP/dVp . 0) the operation voltage needs to
dt
increase. On the other hand, in the negative slope region
By applying the Laplace transformation to (24) – (26), the (dP/dVp , 0) the operation voltage needs to decrease. In
transfer function of input voltage of the converter to the this study, the MPPT controller is implemented in
control duty can be obtained as expressed in (27) MATLAB real-time control as shown in Fig. 12b.
To avoid possible slope calculation error induced by the
V~ p (Re Vb =L)(s þ (1=CRe )) voltage and current ripples, a fourth-order moving
¼ 2 (27) average filter is used. As can be seen from Fig. 12b, the
D~ s þ (Re =L)s þ (1=LC)
amount of change and the direction of the voltage
Based on (27), the block diagram showing the related command after each sampling time are decided by
multiplying DP/DVp and Gain 1 and working with a
parameters of the voltage controller is presented in
Fig. 11a. The Vt is the amplitude of the sawtooth limiter (limiter 1). This voltage control signal with
waveform and kv is the voltage sensing factor. It should be direction information is accumulated with a memory cell
and operated with a gain factor (Gain 2) to adjust the
noted that there is a minus sign in (27); therefore the
designed PI controller with a positive feedback path is used control voltage within a proper range. The summation of
here as shown in Fig. 11a. The related parameters of the this control voltage and a given initial voltage (init voltage)
passes through a limiter (Limiter 2) to generate the final
controller can be decided after a proper crossover frequency
is given as shown in Fig. 11b. voltage command.

The open loop voltage of the PV module is chosen as the

3.5 Adaptive MPPT controller
As stated in the previous section, the outer loop of the
proposed PV and WT converter systems is an MPPT
controller designed for tracking the peak power of the PV
module based on the P –V characteristic and the slope
signal of dP/dV. The modified MPPT control algorithm
proposed in this paper is adopted from [13, 14] named as
initial voltage to make the MPPT start working from that
voltage and Limiter 2 is designed for setting the voltage
operating range of the PV module. In this particular
arrangement, the proposed MPPT controller is adaptive,
that is, its adjusting speed of the MPPT is proportional to
the slope of DP/DVp and the maximum adjusting speed is
limited by Limiter 1. This design enables the MPPT to
achieve a fast and precise tracking objective.

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Figure 12 MPPT of the PV module
a The P– V characteristic of a PV module
b The proposed adaptive MPPT controller
The HCS method of the WTG in the proposed paper also
employs the same MPPT controller shown in Fig. 12b as the
PV module, except that the sampling time is longer
to consider the WTG having a larger mechanical time
constant. HCS is designed to work below the rated wind
speed condition. As at over wind speed condition, the
WTG would be charged to be constant power control.
4 Experimental test and
verification
To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed
hybrid generation system and the designed controllers, a
110 V/60 Hz, 1200 W experimental system is constructed
as shown in Fig. 13. The details of the experimental system
are briefed as follows:
1. DC-link voltage: 200 V.
2. PV module: 4  150 W.
3. WT generator: PMSM-type WTG rated at 740 W,
162 V, emulated with a close-loop controlled M-G set,
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braking resistor 33 V, PWM chopping frequency 5 kHz,
PWM actives at Pwtg . 1 kW or Vg . 195 V (a little lower
than the DC-link voltage), cut-off voltage Vg ¼ 240 V.
4. Control and switching frequency of the converter:
20 kHz, PWM.
5. Battery bank: 10  12 V with the rated charging current
of 4 A.
6. MPPT sampling frequency: PV 500 Hz, WTG 50 Hz.
The typical experimental results are shown in Figs. 14–17.
For testing the dynamic response of the system, Fig. 14a shows
the measured results in the UPS mode with a step load (pure
resistor load) change from 1260 to 117 W and the maximum
charging current is set as 2 A. It can be seen from Fig. 14a that
before and after the change of load demand, both the PV and
the WTG are operating around their MPP, that is, 348 W
(Ppv) at 127 V for the PV module and 733 W (Pwtg) at
165 V for the WTG. At the very beginning, the total
output power of the PV and the WTG is lower than the
load demand; thus the battery bank is discharging with a Pch
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Figure 13 Designed 110 V/60 Hz, 1200 W experimental system
Figure 14 Measured results in the UPS mode with a step
load change
of 253 W to compensate for the insufficiency in supplying the
load demand. When the load demand is reduced to 117 W,
the total output power of the PV and the WTG is higher
than the sum of the load demand (PLoad ¼ 117 W) and the
charging power (Pch ¼ 242 W); thus the MPPT controller
of the PV module is stopped first followed by the WT
generator as planned. After quitting the MPPT functions,
the measured output power of the PV and WTG are,
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Figure 15 Measured results of mode change from the
grid – tie mode to the UPS mode at heavy load
respectively, Ppv ¼ 2 W and Pwtg ¼ 388 W (about 195 V).
The load voltage and current waveforms are shown in
Fig. 14b to verify the performance of the related controllers.
Observing the transient period, the fast response of the
proposed system can be found from the waveforms of
Fig. 14a, in which the MPPT response speed is fast and the
DC-link voltage, PV voltage and WTG voltage are well
regulated. Although there is some overshoot in the response
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Figure 16 Measured results of mode change from the
grid – tie mode to the UPS mode at light load
of WTG power and battery charging power caused by the
WTG MPPT overshoot, the WTG voltage is still below the
cut-off voltage (240 V in this paper) and the response is
acceptable.
To test the dynamic response speed during mode change
and to examine various MPPT and OFF MPPT
operations in the UPS mode, Figs. 15– 17 show the cases
where the load (pure resistor load) is 1210, 293 and 12 W,
respectively. Firstly in the grid – tie mode, the PV module
and the WTG are always operated at their MPP since the
Figure 17 Measured results of mode change from the
grid – tie mode to the UPS mode at near zero load
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power flow can be easily balanced by the connected grid.
As shown in Fig. 15a, both the PV and WTG are
operated at their MPP, that is, Ppv ¼ 346 W at 128 V and
Pwtg ¼ 732 W at 162 V. In this case, the sum of the output
power from the PV and the WTG is lower than the load
demand and the charging power (Pch ¼ 497 W, at the
rated charged current of 4 A); thus about 650 W is
absorbed from the grid (Ps ¼ 650 W). The voltage and
current parameters concerning the load, converters and grid
are presented in Fig. 15b. For the lighter load situation,
Fig. 16a shows the measured results; the load demand PL
is decreased to 293 W and the charging power Pch is
measured to be 481 W. Both the PV and WTG are
operated near their MPP, that is, Ppv ¼ 325 W at 128 V
and Pwtg ¼ 729 W at 164 V. Because the sum of the
output powers from the PV and WTG is larger than the
load demand and charging power (Pch ¼ 481 W, at the
rated charged current of 4 A), about 230 W is absorbed
from the grid (Ps ¼ 2230 W). For the minimum load
situation, Fig. 17a shows the measured results; the load
demand PL is decreased to 12 W and the charging power
Pch is measured to be 485 W. Both the PV and WTG are
operated near their MPP, that is, Ppv ¼ 438 W at 129 V
and Pwtg ¼ 729 W at 164 V. More power (Ps ¼ 632 W) is
fed to the grid because of a lower load power and a higher
PV power.
As the grid power is interrupted, the system detects the
grid fault within 4 ms and switches to operate in the UPS
mode. The steady-state responses in the UPS mode shown
in Figs. 15– 17 are just like those shown in Fig. 14. In
Fig. 15, because the load demand (Pload ¼ 1210 W) and
the power loss are larger than those the PV (Ppv ¼ 346 W
in MPP) and WTG (Pwtg ¼ 729 W in MPP) can provide,
the battery will discharge (Pch ¼ 2116 W) to supplement
the insufficient power. In Fig. 16, because the load demand
(Pload ¼ 293 W) and the battery charge power (Pch ¼
497 W) are smaller than those the PV (Ppv ¼ 346 W in
MPP) and WTG (Pwtg ¼ 729 W in MPP) can provide,
the PV is in OFF MPPT mode (Ppv ¼ 77 W) and the
WTG is still in MPPT (Pwtg ¼ 729 W). In Fig. 17,
because the load demand (Pload ¼ 12 W) and the battery
charge power (Pch ¼ 497 W) are smaller than those the PV
(Ppv ¼ 438 W (at 129 V) in MPP) and WTG
(Pwtg ¼ 729 W (at 164 V) in MPP) can provide, the PV is
in fully OFF MPPT mode (Ppv ¼ 0 W) and the WTG is
in partially OFF MPPT (Pwtg ¼ 710 W at 195 V) mode.
The braking resistor is active to absorb the excessive energy
produced by the WTG because the WTG voltage has
reached 195 V in this case. The WTG voltage can be
maintained at 195 V since the braking resistor has enough
capability to absorb the energy produced by the WTG and
is the part larger than the battery charge and load
requirement. As to the transient period from the grid – tie
mode to the UPS mode, Figs. 15– 17 show that the
response speed is fast and the transition is smooth, which
is because the battery-arm has a quick response to support
the power imbalance in this period. However, the power
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change is large in the battery-arm. This paper employs the
current limitation to suppress this phenomenon. A better
solution is to add a current loop to improve the power
change response, which will be done in the future improved
version.
5 Conclusion
This paper has investigated a hybrid generation system
consisting of wind, PV and battery storage energy modules
designed to supply continuous and high-quality power to
critical loads. A versatile energy management and control
scheme has been presented to determine the operation
mode of the hybrid generation system and to improve the
overall controllability and flexibility. The dynamic analysis
of various models of the system components and the
design of related power controllers are addressed in detail.
The feasibility and performance of the proposed hybrid
generation system operated by the designed controllers are
verified with a series of tests and the measured results on
a 110 V/60 Hz, 1200 W experimental system. The proposed
hybrid system can also be extended to the three-phase
system just by replacing the three-arm rectifier–inverter with
the three-phase rectifier and the three-phase inverter.
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