The Combination of Fuel Cell and Wind Turbine to Reduce Total System Cost

In this paper a combination of wind turbine and fuel cell power plant (FCPP) connected to grid is used to supply a residential load. GA algorithm is applied to find optimum output power of FCPP connected to grid.The oscillating nature of wind energy (WE) has different effects on the system operational cost. Since FCPP can produce both thermal and electrical energy at the same time, it is tried to supply thermal load besides electrical load. Integration of FCPP and WE with local grid results in lower operational cost than that of individual units. A cost model consist of electrical power from WE, cost of energy, power trade with the local grid, thermal recovery from ‎the FCPP, start-up cost of FCPP and maintenance cost; is used to analyze the operational cost.Load profiles have changed in every six minutes and the tariff for electricity is variable.A XCO2/6kw wind energy unit is used to commuteKhavaf, in Mashhad province, wind data to electric.According to electrical and thermal load demand, available wind power and different tariffs for purchasing and selling electricity of local grid the operation of the FCPP system is scheduled to optimize operational cost. Encouraging results indicate feasibility of the proposed technique.

Keywords:

Evolutionary Algorithm , PEM Fuel Cell , Wind Energy(WE