Design and power control of fuel cell/electrolyzer/microturbine/ultra-capacitor hybrid power plant

Abstract

This paper provides a design and power control of hybrid grid power plant including a fuel cell, an electrolyzer, a microturbine and an ultra-capacitor which supplies power to support the grid and grid integrated typical domestic load. The proposed hybrid power plant is working under simple power control algorithm. According to the proposed algorithm, the fuel cell is the primary power source. The microturbine is added as a secondary system to confirm continuous power flow. The ultra-capacitor module is utilized as a backup and complement device to take care of the load following problems of fuel cell during transient. The electrolyzer is used as a dump load to generate hydrogen and to reduce power fluctuation during surplus power. A complete Matlab/Simulink model has been established to check the performance of the proposed system for the real load conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed system facilitates the grid stability, power quality and continuity.