Abstract:

Scientists around the world are working on modeling and simulating renewable energy systems to improve their productivity and expand the exploitation of natural resources. Given the different nature and complexity of these systems, computational tools are needed to address the analysis and study of these energy converters, to improve their productivity and also to better understand their behavior. In this sense, the modeling and simulation approach to physics systems in general, and energy devices in particular, is a must.

However, from the didactic point of view, it is very convenient to make the use of these computational tools attractive to students who have very different backgrounds, and approach the wide field of renewable energy from different degrees, points of view and interests.

This has led us to consider the study of a proposal for computational practices to combine modeling and simulation embedded in the subject “Projects: Modeling and Simulation of Energy Systems”, an elective course of 6 ECTS credits, taught in the “Master in Energy” at the Complutense University of Madrid.

The general objective of the course is that students acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to establish the basis for an evaluation, with a certain degree of accuracy, of an energy resource. At the same time, they will acquire the necessary skills to establish an adequate methodology for the prediction of the behavior of different energy systems, whether they are associated with a single energy source or are of a hybrid nature.

The practices proposed in the course are carried out in Matlab/Simulink, available at UCM for academic use. Matlab/Simulink is a very widespread tool in the academic and industrial environment, which facilitates its use in the energy systems environment.

Students perform 6 laboratory practices, the first four are generalist oriented. The two final practices are, on the contrary, focused on the modeling and simulation of energy elements.

The practices proposed here address the modeling and simulation of the wind resource, as well as a wind energy converter, a wind turbine, and the interaction between the two.

It has three objectives:
- Modeling and simulation of a stochastic resource: the wind. Within the program of the course, one of the topics covered is the modeling and simulation of stochastic systems. In this topic different probability density functions are studied, and how to obtain the models that best fit given data, which must be available.
- Modeling and simulation of a system using mathematical equations: the wind turbine. This model will have only one input: the wind speed, and one output: the generated power. The wind turbine equations are available in the literature.
- Simulation of the complete system linking points 1 and 2. The last step of the practice will be to feed the developed wind generator model with the stochastic wind model as input. From there, simulations can be performed under different operating conditions and the results critically analyzed.

Keywords:

Energy systems, education, computational experiments, modelling and simulation.