Wind-driven stand-alone DFIG with battery and pumped hydro storage system

A wind-driven doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) along with the battery and pumped hydro storage plant (PHSP) has been devised for supplying isolated loads. PHSP-based storage system is economical and viable for the MW level wind-turbine system. The proposed scheme employs a squirrel-cage induction machine (SCIM) coupled with reversible pump turbine for PHSP. The battery storage is also included in this system to cope up with the intermittent nature of wind and fast-changing load. A simple control strategy has been implemented for maintaining the set values of voltage magnitude and frequency at the stator terminals of DFIG, which serve as a virtual grid for connecting ac loads and SCIM. Based on the availability of power in the wind, PHSP and battery, various operating modes of the proposed system have been clearly identified for supplying the isolated loads. These operating modes are clearly demonstrated through the analysis developed for this purpose and validated through experimental results. The salient features of the proposed system over the existing stand-alone wind-driven generators are (i) structural simplicity, i.e., employing only one power electronic converter, (ii) wide speed operation of wind-driven DFIG, (iii) reduced battery capacity, (iv) high energy storage using PHSP and (v) availability of continuous power to the isolated loads.