A Tutorial on the Control of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

As concerns grow about energy security and resilience, hybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs) are expected to play an important role in the future of energy. HRESs are comprised of multiple subsystems including electricity generation by renewable technologies, storage of energy or other products, and end uses including industrial loads. By coordinating the subsystem design and operation, significant potential exists to increase energy efficiency, even in situations with highly constrained transmission capacity, by taking advantage of complementarity among subsystems. This tutorial paper provides illustrative examples from three types of HRES: energy generation technologies, storage, and end use applications. All of these are situated in the broader, real-world context in which energy problems are defined and solved, with discussion about the impacts of this context on the technological solutions. The paper then describes a number of opportunities for control theory to advance the current HRES state-of-the art, including possible research questions to be addressed. Next, it describes a few of the many modeling and simulation tools that are available for HRES research. Finally, it concludes with discussion synthesizing the various elements of HRES with an aim to inspire future research.