Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. & Ind. Eng., Texas Univ., El Paso, TX, USA
Abstract :
Wind is a renewable energy resource that is growing in importance as a means to address the national and global issues of air pollution, grid reliability, dependence on foreign oil, climate change, etc. However, the wind varies over time and there is less of it (on average) at sites around major load centers, which are two of the technical and economic challenges to the establishment of power generation facilities relying solely on the wind. But hybrid systems, such as wind turbine-fuel cell systems, have the potential to rectify these shortcomings and also make possible the greater decentralization of electric power generation in the United States, thus easing the transmission and distribution system´s bottlenecks while increasing its overall reliability and security without sacrificing the quality of power delivered to the customer. Furthermore, wind turbine-fuel cell systems can achieve these results in an environment-friendly manner without producing harmful emissions. This work describes the development of a simulation model and the associated control schemes for a small-scale, prototype wind turbine-fuel cell system that will enable the further study and optimization of the performance, sizing, cost, etc., of such hybrid systems.
Keywords :
air pollution control; cost reduction; decentralised control; fuel cell power plants; hybrid power systems; optimisation; power distribution reliability; power generation control; power generation economics; power generation reliability; power supply quality; power system security; power system simulation; power transmission reliability; wind power; wind turbines; AC power generating system; United States; air pollution; climate change; costing; distribution system; economic challenges; electric power generation; environment-friendly manner; foreign oil; global issues; grid reliability; harmful emissions; hybrid systems; load centers; national issues; optimization; power generation facility; power quality; regenerative fuel cell model; reliability; renewable energy resource; security; simulation model; small-scale control scheme; technical challenges; transmission system; wind turbine-fuel cell systems; AC generators; Fuels; Power generation; Power generation economics; Power system modeling; Power system reliability; Renewable energy resources; Wind energy generation; Wind power generation; Wind turbines;