Energy Management in a Standalone PV System with Priority Controller

Abstract

In many developing countries, meeting the energy demand has become a major challenge. Such problem is more prominent in rural and remote areas of the country. The load requirements in these areas are less and the same can be addressed with renewable energy sources. The proposed work deals with a MPPT based standalone PV system using a priority controller. The system can be used to meet out the critical load demands in rural areas. Due to change in weather conditions, an unregulated output in PV array is observed. Hence, maximum power is tracked using a DC-DC converter, where the tracked data is with respect to temperature and irradiance levels. To acquire the maximum power point (MPP), an incremental conductance (IC) algorithm is employed and it is executed by controlling the duty cycle of DC-DC boost convertor. Thus, the attainment of energy management in loads and battery storage is supported by priority load control algorithm. The proposed system assures better energy management and supplies energy for critical loads. The entire system has been simulated and validated using MATLAB/SIMULINK.