INTEGRATIONOFFUELCELLTOPOWERGRID

LABWORK:SUSTAINABLENEWTECHNOLOGIES




Prof:DelphineRiu


GrenobleINP|Ense3
MScElectricalEngineeringforSmartGridsandBuildings

HannanAfifi
MireiaMartnezRibas

29thJanuary2016

 1.INTRODUCTION

In this lab work, we are connecting a fuel cell system to low voltage grid (230/380 V),
according to a power electronics interface. The fuelcellisthenassociatedtoachopperanda
PWM inverter. Exact and average models of power electronics converters will be used in
order to design the control loops of the system. Simulations will be done with
Matlab/Simulinksoftware.
ThetopologyofthesystemispresentedinFigure1.

Figure1.Topologyofthesystem

The boost chopper is used to increase the fuel cell voltage and then, to control the DC bus
voltage. The threephase inverter is controlled to provide desired threephase currents from
gridspecifications.

2.MODELLINGOFTHESYSTEM

Theboostconverterismodelledastheschemeoffigure2.

Figure2.Modelofboostconverter

The switching function, u, is equal to 0 (when the switch is controlled open) or 1. The
average model of the chopper is obtained by replacing this function u by the duty cycle,
comprised between 0 and 1. The fuel cell current is controlled by a Hysteresis controlled
(which corresponds to slipping modes control). The bandwidthisequalto10Ainthisstudy.
The current can be also controlled with a PI controller. The DC bus voltage is chosen from
thegridspecifications.Inthisstudy,V0=900V.

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 3.LABWORKQUESTIONS

1. Find the model of the fuel cell and the boost chopper. Find the exact and average
models of the converter. For the moment, you can consider that the voltage of the DC
busisremainingconstant.
In order to find the model of the converter, we first look for the dynamic equations of the
statevariables,LandC.Beingutheswitchingfunction,thefollowingequationsareobtained.
Whenu=0,switchisopenandthediodeisconducting.
Voltageequation: V FC = L di(t) dt + RFCi + V c
Currentequation : i = r + C dV
Vc
dt
c

Whenu=1,switchisclosedandthediodeisnotconducting.
di(t)
Voltageequation: V FC = L dt + RFCi
Currentequation: 0 = Vrc + C dVdt
c

The exact model of the boost converter is found by combining the equations above into one
which is true for both configurations of the switch. This is done integrating the switching
function u into the equations. Therefore, the exact model of the converter is defined by the
followingequations.
di(t)
Voltageequation: V FC = L dt + RFCi + (1 u)V c
Currentequation: i(1 u) Vrc iD = C dV
dt
c

Theaveragemodeloftheboostconvertercorrespondstothefollowingexpression.
L di(t)
dt = V FC RFCi + (1 )V c
ApplyingLaplacetransformationweobtain: (Ls + RFC)I(s) = V FC (1 (s))V c

2.DesignthecontrolloopsofthefuelcellcurrentandtheDCbusvoltage.
a) Controlof I FC withcontrollersPIandhysteresis
For the simulation of this section we have used thefile hacheur_avec_commande_1.mdland
donneesBEPAC.m . In Simulink we have implemented the blocks Hacheur parallle which
computes iL as a function of three inputsVPac,theswitchingfunctionuandv0.Inthiscase,
in order to control the current iL through the fuel cell, the expression wanted has been
obtained through Laplace transformation of the voltage equation of the exact model of the
boost converter. For this case, voltage of the DC bus is considered constant and equal to
900V.TheequationimplementedinSimulinkis(inSimulinknomenclature):
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iL = (V PAC (1 u)V 0) Ls+R
FC

After completing the block, the time response of the current through the fuel cell has been
simulated in two different scenarios: first, with a PI controller, second, with a hysteresis
controller.BothtypesofcontrollersarealreadyimplementedintheSimulinkmodel.

PIcontroller

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Figure 3 shows the time response of I FC with a PI controller (in green) compared with the
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referencecurrent I FC (inblue)throughthefuelcell,whichtakesavalueof200A.

Figure3.Timeresponseofcurrentfuelcell I F C withPIcontroller


Itispossibletoobserbhowthetimeresponse of I FC hastwodifferentiatedparts.Itstartsvery
quick at the beginning (until 0.01 s approximately)bythencontinuingslowlyuntilitreaches
the reference value of 200 A. This delay of the response is due to the presence of the
disturbance (V FC V c) , which at the sametimeitchangeswiththetime.Itisconcludedthat
theresponseisnotcontinuouswithtime.

Hysteresiscontroller
Figure 4showsthetimeresponseof I FC withahysteresiscontroller(ingreen)comparedwith
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thereferencecurrent I FC (inblue)throughthefuelcell,whichtakesavalueof200A.

Figure4.Timeresponseofcurrentfuelcell I F C withHysteresiscontroller

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Compared as in the situation with PI controller, the hysteresis controller works better and
offers a much more quicker time response. From the right graph, itispossibletoseethatthe
time response of the current corresponds to 0.004 s until it reaches the reference value.This
typeofcontrollerdoesnotgetinfluencedbytheeffectofthedisturbances.Anotherbehaviour
observed in the graph is typical from hysteresis controllers the current iL is always
fluctuating between to current boundaries around Iref. According to the values of the
switching function, the current fluctuates from upper to lower current boundary and vice
versa.

b) Controlof V DCbus withcontrollersPIandhysteresis
For the simulation of this section we have used thefile hacheur_avec_commande_2.mdland
donneesBEPAC.m . In Simulink we have implemented the blocks Hacheur parallle which
computes iL and v0 as a function of threeinputsVPac,theswitchingfunctionuandi0.Here
the V DCbus , which is noted as v0, is not considered constant but is the variable which is
controlled. v0 is calculated as a function of the switching function u, i0 and the current
through the diode iD . According to the differentswitchingmodes,weknowthat iD = iL when
u=0 and iD =0 when u=1. Torepresentthis,wehaveusedthisexpressionof iD = iL(1 u) .In
this case, in order to control the DC bus voltage, the expression wanted has been obtained
through Laplace transformation of the current equation of the exact model of the boost
converter. This takes into account the disturbance element of diode current. The equation to
computev0implementedinSimulinkis(inSimulinknomenclature):
r
V 0 = (iD i0)rCs+1

Moreover,thecurrentthroughthefuelcelliLiscomputedasbeforeusingtheexpression:
1
iL = (V PAC (1 u)V 0) Ls+R
FC

After completing the block, the time response of the current through the fuel cell has been
simulated in two different scenarios: first, with a PI controller, second, with a hysteresis
controller.BothtypesofcontrollersarealreadyimplementedintheSimulinkmodel.

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PIController
As can beseen inthe figure5,byimplementingPIcontrollertothesystem,thetimeresponse
of the voltage to reach the voltage reference (V0ref = 900 V) is relatively fast which is less
than 0.01 s. Nevertheless, there is an overshoot asadrawbackofimplementing Pcontroller.
Ideally, the effect of implementing I in PI controller makes steady state error to be 0.
However, there is a disturbance which makes voltage oscillates when it reaches steady state
conditi on.

Figure5.PlotofV0ref(Green)andVdcbus(Blue)overthetimeforPI

Figure6.PlotofiLref(Green)andiL(Blue)overthetimeforPI
Another characteristic of PI controller for Vdc bus can also be observed in figure 6. From
figure 6, itcanbeseenthatcurrentthroughfuelcell(iL)ofPIcontroller basicallyfollowsthe
pattern ofiLref. However,asthereisadisturbance,thesteadystateerrorisnotequaltozero
andcurrentoscillateswithbandwidtharound1amp s.

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HysteresisController

Figure7.PlotofV0ref(Green)andVdcbus(Blue)overthetimeforHysteresisController
From the result of simulation for hysteresis controller, it is known that the time response of
the voltage to reach steady state condition is faster than PI controller (less than 0.005 sec).
Furthermore, byimplementinghysteresiscontroller,thesteadystateerrorisalsozeroasthere
is no disturbance happens. This means that hysteresis controller has better Vdc bus output
performancethanPIcontroller

Figure8.PlotofiLref(Green)andiL(Blue)overthetimeforHysteresisController
AlthoughthattheoutputoftheVdcbusinhysteresiscontrollerisasitisexpected,the
inductorcurrentinthiscasedoesnotfollowthepatternofreferenceinductorcurrent.Instead
offollowingthepatternofiLref,inhysteresiscontrolleriLfallsandreachessteadystate
conditionaround0.4sec.Moreover,ascanbeseeninfigure8,thesteadystateerrorishuge

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asthesteadystateiLis900AmpsandintheotherhandssteadystatelofiLrefisaround
1000Amps.

3.3phaseinverter

Figure9.ThreephaseInverter

The threephase inverter is controlled by two control loops. The first regulates the current
through a resonant controller andthesecondistocontrol activeandreactivepowerbasedon
Park transformation. Currents of phase i1,i2andi3arecontrolledbyusingavoltageinverter
operating in PWM at a frequency of 4 kHz with commutation function of u1, u2, u3 = 1.
Vres is the effective value of the reference voltage (230V) and Rond, Lond are respectively
theresistanceandinductance(Lond=1mH,Roundm=20).

Figure10.BlockdiagramofPowertransfercontrol

Figure above shows the block diagram of control system. The reference currents are
calculated in the system coordinate dq by an outer loop from the active and reactive power
setpoint.

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The point of operation of the cell is fixed (reference constant current) and active power
reference Pref of the inverter is determined by controlling the DC bus voltage V0 with a PI
controller.

Theexactmodellingofthethreephaseinverteris:

Fromtheexactmodellingofthreephaseinverter,thesimulinkmodelofthreephaseinverter
isbuilt

ResultofSimulation
Figure 11 below shows the output current of inverter . In order to know whether the current
output is as it is expected, we can also see figure 12, comparison between active power
reference Pref (yellow line) and active power output Pout (purple line). As can be seen in
figure 12, instead of increasing like Pref, at the beginning Pout falls down and oscillates.
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However, after sometime, Po starts to increase and reaches steady statecondition(2.2x 10
W). It can also be noticed that the steady state error inthiscaseisnotzero,whichisaround
0.07x 105 W.

Figure11.PlotofI123

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Figure12.PlotofPref(yellow)andPout(purple)

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