ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846

Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9 S(1), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9iS(1)/108444 December 2016 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

Fuzzy Based Hybrid Solar-Wind Energy Harvesting

Using Mppt Control Technique
T. S. Balaji* and Satyam
Electronics and Communication Engineering, SRM University, Vadapalani, Chennai - 600026, Tamil Nadu, India;
balaji1381@[Link], satyamb50@[Link]

Abstract
Objective: Modeling of a hybrid system is a powerful device which utilizes solar energy and energy source from
the wind which is given to the DC bus that will in turn produce the power supply without any disturbances.
Methods/Analysis: In this paper, depending upon the requirement the load is driven either by wind energy or
solar energy. The alternative sources of energy are connected to a DC-DC converter by means of a current source.
Findings: To reduce the unwanted components or hardwares this model is implemented with low cost power converter.
A fuzzy logic based wind/solar combined model is designed for 30 KW. The load voltage obtained is 300 V and the load
current obtained is 0.1 KA. In this solar/wind combined system, the power which is generated by wind runs at an average
speed. The maximum power can be obtained with the introduction of fuzzy logic concept along with photovoltaic arrays
which is used under incremental conduction algorithm. Novelty/Improvements: The maximum power can be derived
from more than two renewable resources by using this hybrid system.

Keywords: Fuzzy Logic, Maximum Power Point Tracking, Solar Panel, Uninterrupted Power Supply, Wind Turbine

1. Introduction load. The multiple energy resources can be switched one

from another with the help of relay circuitry3.
Due to fluctuation of price of natural gases, the alternative When comparing with the other controllers the PIC
natural energy sources place an important role. If many microcontroller identified as best, because of its unique
number of sources are ready to run the single load, then advantages like operating speed is fast, RISC architecture
the load must be uninterrupted by those sources and this and the whole system can be designed compact and cost
will be considered as a major job1. The two important effective manner with the help of internal ADC4.
energy sources are solar and wind energy which is The major disturbances or interferences occur due to
discussed in this paper. Because of its unique external human being and the losses due to electricity which can
feature like production capacity these energy sources are be reduced by large amount when the entire process takes
plays an important role. place automatically.
These energy sources behave differently and its
performances are different in an entire day or entire year
that is with respect to sun light or seasons. A separate
2. Present System
system is required to manage the energy in order to select To produce the power any one of the renewable resources
a proper source of energy to provide the power without is utilized in the present system.
any disturbances to the load. Because, it is not desired The sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day. The production
amount of power which will be provided by the source, of electricity is mainly depends on sun when the PV panels
the capacity of source can be change at any time2. are used. The energy which will be produced by sun take
The output power of the solar panel can be measured part an important role. At a given point of time and place
with the help of current and voltage sensors. The panel the amount of light energy produced from solar sources
always monitors that the requirement of power to the are essential. Because of solar energy varies at irregular

* Author for correspondence

 Fuzzy Based Hybrid Solar-Wind Energy Harvesting Using Mppt Control Technique

intervals5. The output power which will be obtained from from the wind when it is oscillating. The weather condition
solar energy is not same throughout the day or seasons. cannot predict some locations. It could be winder, cloudy
The power may or may not produce depend upon the or stormy weather. Some time wind energy is more when
weather conditions. compared with solar energy.
The power which will be generated by the wind The load is designed in such way that it utilizes the
turbine is not a predictable energy resource. Its electricity available resources efficiently and it accepts the energy
generated property can be varied with the following from much number of sources7.
constraints: Wind speed, air density and wind turbine
characteristics. The production of the electricity from 3.1 PIC Microcontroller
the wind turbine completely depends on the turbine Peripheral Interface Controller is represented with the
speed. When the turbine speed is increases very high abbreviation of PIC. A various embedded systems can be
then in order to overcome from damage the wind turbine controlled by a processor based system which is termed
is getting to be shutdown. The output is completely as microcontroller. A processor, memory and peripherals
depending upon the single turbine. It means that the are the major blocks of a typical microcontroller.
output power is mainly depends upon the rotation speed EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable
of the wind turbine. Read-Only Memory) where can be re-programmed
The discussed alternative resources like solar and easily, low cost and development tools are the important
wind energy are not consistent because they produce the features of this PIC microcontroller. It supports the latest
output power irregularly. These sources will never be able development tools which are required by the modern
to contribute the significant power supply or to drive the engineers.
load6. The specification of the PIC microcontroller is shown
in Table 1.
3. Proposed System The microcontroller is programmed in such a way
that it will be continuously comparing the input received
Any one of the active resources like solar or wind energy from both the sources i.e. the wind turbine and the solar
can be utilized to generate the power in this proposed panel with the load requirement so that the specified
system. When one particular energy resource is too low, output is reached. In other words microcontroller will be
then it automatically switches its resource which will have reading the load requirement and based on that it will be
abundant energy. switching the sources using the relay circuit to supply the
The electricity which is generated from the solar power and charge the battery such that the continuous
energy can be balanced by the production of electricity load requirements are met.

Table 1. Specification of PIC microcontroller

FLASH RAM EEPROM TIMERS OPERATING PACKAGING
MEMORY (BYTES) (BYTES) RANGE (V)
8K X 14 368X 8 256 X8 3 2.0 TO 5.5 28/40/44

Table 2. Comparison of microcontrollers

PART RAM ROM I/O TIM INTER VCC PACKA
NUMBER PINS ERS RUPTS GING
AT89C51 4K 128 32 2 6 5V 40
AT89LV51 4K 128 32 2 6 3V 40
AT89C1051 1K 64 15 1 3 3V 20
AT89C2051 2K 128 15 2 6 3V 20
AT89C52 8K 128 32 3 8 5V 40
AT89LV52 8K 128 32 3 8 3V 40
AT89S2 8K 256 32 3 6 5V 40
PIC 8K 256 35 3 14 6.5V 28/40/44

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 T. S. Balaji and Satyam

3.2 MPPT As discussed above, the fuzzy logic is not only

A MPPT is nothing but a DC-DC converter which acts describes about binary 0 or 1. It may take several steps
as an interface between the solar panels and battery bank between binary 0 and 1. Binary 0 represents completely
that has to be charged. The main purpose of the MPPT false and binary 1 represents completely true. The Fuzzy
is to obtain the lower DC voltage which is required to logic approach may take various steps between 0 and 1
charge the batteries from the solar panels and the wind which will be described by the user or designer. The entire
generators whose DC output is very large10. control can be made step by step in all the degrees or
This paper discusses about the concept of panel directions.
tracking where in the panels which are mounted always Fuzzy logic is the key algorithm used in this paper. The
follows the sun. The panel tracking circuit is designed in values received from the sources like wind and solar are
such a way that it receives maximum sun light at all the continuously varying since the atmospheric conditions will
times8. Due to the season variations, during the winter not be same all through the day or a week. Thus the values
season it requires more power from the solar panels. obtained from the sourced are computed using the fuzzy
The MPPT is a digital electronic tracker in which the logic using which the sources are switched on and off in the
output voltage from the solar panels is compared with circuit for charging the battery using the relay circuit.
the voltage of the battery bank. Based on the necessity of For instance if the sun is at the peak then whole
the voltage of the battery bank the solar panel provides process of charging the battery will be carried out using
the voltage. MPPT’s are highly efficient. The gain of the the solar panel alone and wind turbine will be at off stage
MPPT is dependent upon humidity, temperatures, battery by the fuzzy logic. Similarly if the wind is more thereby
charge and other factors9. the fuzzy logic solar panel will not be involved in the
The following conditions are important, so that process charging of the battery.
MPPT’s are required to take certain actions.
Solar panels works better in all the seasonal conditions
whether it is summer or winter. But during the winter
season the MPPT’s play an important role because it
always track the sun light, whenever the sun light is more
it immediately take up for charging. The extra power is
required mostly during the winter season.
It track the status of the battery if it shows the lower
state then immediately take up for charging as well as at
the same time it must do action that presently processing.

3.3 Fuzzy Logic

Fuzzy logic is defined to go for several options instead of
using only two options it means that the binary options
0’s and 1’s. From this approach, we can obtain several
degrees of truth.
Fuzzy logic means that it examines the truthiness
of the certain experiment. It rarely includes the binary
value 0 and 1 and it is used only for the extreme false or
extreme truth. When a certain experiment is processing
it examines the truthiness of the experiment by doing the Figure 1. Block diagram.
aggregate of the earlier results and suppose it produces 3.4 Solar Panel
a partial truth then again it will go for further higher The major source of energy for solar panel is a sun ray or sun
truths. With a result of that it concludes the truth and it light. It generates the electricity by absorbing the sun light.
resembles near to the human brain. In a simple way of A section of solar cells packaged together is normally
explaining, fuzzy logic is a special case or special way of called as photovoltaic module. In many of the major
expressing the Boolean logic.

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 Fuzzy Based Hybrid Solar-Wind Energy Harvesting Using Mppt Control Technique

applications the electricity resource is available from smallest turbines are most widely used. The turbines are
the solar array of photovoltaic system. The generated also made up of horizontal or vertical axes depend upon
DC power output is different for different photovoltaic the requirement of particular application.
module. From the DC power output we can easily The wind turbine is automatically switched on and off
describe that, whether the photovoltaic module is single using the relay circuit. The wind turbine is switched on
or multiple10. when the solar power goes down or when the load is more
Photovoltaic system is not only describing about the such that both the sources could charge the battery and
solar panel modules, it is a study of interconnection of obtain the desired load. Thereby switching off when load
battery and a solar tracker which will be made up of solar is decreased or the sunlight is plenty.
panel modules. Since, this paper discusses about the smallest turbine,
the largest turbines also plays an important role in
electrical grid. The electrical grid is used to provide the
power to the domestic appliances and unused power
to the other customers who need of power which will
be generated by slightly larger turbines. It is treated as
an important energy resource in many of the countries
where the power requirement is more.

Figure 2. Solar panel.

Table 3. Position of solar panel with respect to LDR’s

LDR 1 LDR2 LDR3 POSITION
1 0 0 LEFT
0 1 0 CENTER
0 0 1 RIGHT

As from the Table 3 it is clear that based on the input

of the three LDR’s the solar panel is made to move or take
shift in its angle. When the LDR 1 is at high and the other
two are low then the position of the solar will be at the Figure 3. Wind turbine.
left side. This side shift will be generally seen during the 4. Results and Discussion
morning hours.
In second case when the LDR 2 is at high and the In order to verify the modeling of wind turbine, a
other two are low then the position of the solar panel will ramp input is given to the rotor speed at a particular
be at the centre thereby maintain the angle of a straight wind speed. The variation of power developed with the
line. This kind of position is seen during the noon hour variation of rotor speed at different wind speed. It shows
when the sun will be on our forehead. that for different wind speed maximum power is obtained
In the third case when the LDR 3 is at high and the at different rotor speed. The maximum power mainly
other two are at low solar panel will be shifting towards depends upon the rotor speed.
the right. This kind of position of the solar will be during When the turbine is connected to the system the input
the time when the sun is about to set down. Comparing to the wind turbine is given in the form of step signal
all the three the power obtained at the position 2 i.e. at the having initial value 20, final value 21 at a step time of 5
centre position will be high. second in order to represent change in wind speed from
20 m/s to 21 m/s. The rotor speed is given initially a value
3.5 Wind Turbine of 100 rad/sec till PMSG develop a speed more than that.
The wind turbines are manufactured in different forms After the developed speed of PMSG become more than
like largest and smallest turbine wings. The battery charge 100 rad/sec that value is given as the input rotor speed of
applications and certain other small applications the wind turbine.

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 T. S. Balaji and Satyam

utilized efficiently from any one of the interconnected

resources. The electricity which is generated from the solar
energy can be balanced by the production of electricity
from the wind when it is oscillating.
The power can be obtained to the load either by solar
or wind or combined. The load can be driven either by
solar or wind by means of supply the power. An efficient
relay circuitry is utilizes solar energy and energy source
from the wind which is given to the DC bus, that will in
turn produce the power supply without any disturbances.
Figure 4. Variation of power due to change in rotor speed Future work will be testing the system with real time data
at different wind speed. and comparing it with real-world scenario and the fuzzy
logic can be applied to more than two renewable energy
In order to verify the modeling of solar array, sources.
a ramp input is given as the current at a particular
temperature and solar irradiation. The VI characteristic
and PV characteristics at different temperature and solar
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