Mitigation of Power Quality Problems in Grid-Interactive Distributed Generation System

This study deals with the stabilization of grid connected wind farms. Operation of wind turbines has an impact on the power quality and reliability at the connected electric network. Power quality problems such as voltage flicker and harmonic distortion along with reliability issues are some major concern and in this work the flicker & harmonics issues are considered. Wind turbine connected to an induction generator and synchronous generator is modeled using PSCAD software to analyze power quality and reliability problems. Due to continuously varying wind speed components, the active and reactive power along with terminal voltage fluctuates continuously. A new type of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) unit is developed to inject reactive power by switching IGBT(s) to mitigate power quality problems and to get stable grid operation. By connecting proposed Electro-Mechanical Switched Capacitor (EMSC) based STATCOM into the grid, reactive power and terminal voltage can be controlled effectively with varying wind speed.

This paper introduces a novel automatic hybrid classifier to detect and classify the Power Quality(PQ) problems in power systems using Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Various PQ events like Normal, Sag, Swell and Interruptions are obtained by modeling three phase distribution system using MATLAB simulink. For classification, the selection of suitable features from the disturbance signal is extremely important. Recent literature survey deals with various signal processing techniques like Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) were used for feature extraction. From the above techniques, the main issues addressed are selection of optimal feature subset and the design of ANN architecture model. To build a competent and robust classifier, it is essential to extract the utilizable feature vectors from the disturbance signal that can optimize data size as well as incorporate the main characteristics of the signal. This paper addresses these issues, and the distinctive feature vectors are obtained with reduced number of coefficients by using Energy Entropy based WPT. From these, the best discriminative feature vectors with reduced number of coefficients are obtained and are used as input to ANN, so that the burden over classification can be reduced. The classification performance is compared with FFT based ANN. The simulation results obtained have significant improvement over existing methods. Thus the proposed hybrid classifier provides the most excellent detection among PQ problems that arises in real time by improving classification accuracy in terms of both computation time and means square error.

Large penetration of PV in a microgrid connected distribution system impacts the weak utility distribution system by creating various power quality (PQ) problems such as voltage sag or swell, unbalance, harmonics and DC current injection etc. These power quality (PQ) issues and they are broadly classified as current related PQ issues and voltage related PQ issues. The current related issues are mitigated by one of the custom power device connected in parallel namely distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM), by operating in current controlled mode (CCM). The dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) is another custom power device (CPD) for mitigating voltage related PQ problems. It is reported in literature that, a suitable modification of a DSTATCOM can achieve the capability to compensate voltage disturbances also. A multiple functions of DSTATCOM is thus achieved by operating the device so as to mitigate the current and voltage related PQ issues. Thus a multi-functional control strategy allow DSTATCOM to compensate voltage and current related PQ problems. This paper presents a hybrid DSTATCOM which can be used in highly PV penetrated distribution system to control the voltage and current related PQ issues. The topology uses a suitably designed foreign inductor, connected between the grid and load. A dynamic reference load voltage generation algorithm using instantaneous symmetric component theory (ISCT) is presented. The simulation is done with real time voltage level using MATLAB/SIMULINK.

This paper describes a hybrid system for the mitigation of power quality (PQ) problems of medium-frequency coreless induction steel-melting furnaces. The hybrid system is composed of passive shunt-detuned filters and a hybrid active power filter (HAPF). Since the single-phase load-resonant thyristor inverter of the work coil operates at variable frequency and supplied from a multipulse thyristor rectifier, interharmonic current components, due to cross-modulation phenomenon across ac–dc–ac link, appear in supply lines. The frequencies of these interharmonics are migrating in time over a wide range, and they interact with passive shunt LC filters and other power-system components resulting in harmful effects on the overall system. Reactive power compensation of medium-frequency coreless induction steel-melting furnace is achieved by passive shunt-detuned filter banks, thus avoiding the amplification risk of interharmonic current components. Interharmonics are satisfactorily suppressed by a HAPF with K control strategy. The performance of controller is improved by modifying the conventional K control strategy and adding feedforward control loops for dominant characteristic harmonics. The resulting hybrid system is operating in a steel-melt shop successfully since March 2013.

Electric railway power systems (ERPS) as one of the most critical and high-power end-user loads of utility grids are characterized by outlandish power quality (PQ) problems all over the world. The extension and evolution of different supply topologies for these systems has resulted in significant and various forms of distortions in network voltage and current in all ERPS, the connected power system, and adjacent consumers. During the last years, numerous studies have been offered to investigate various aspects of PQs in a specific supplying topology. Variation in the supply structure of the ERPS and different types of locomotives has propelled the observation of different PQ phenomena. This versatility and development have led to confront considerable types of two-way interactive interfaces as well as reliability and PQ problems in ERPS. In addition, the lack of standards explicitly dedicated to ERPS has added to the ambiguity and complexity of this issue. In this paper, an extensive review of PQ distortions and phenomena in different configurations of ERPS is proposed and a systematic classification is presented. More than 140 scientific papers and publications are studied and categorized which can provide a fast review and a perfect perspective on the status of PQ indexes for researchers and experts.

Power quality (PQ) problems include harmonics, voltage flicker, three-phase imbalance, voltage swell/sag, interruption, switching transient and so on. Identification of accurate location and occurrence time of PQ problem is important for understanding the underlying cause and to prevent future occurrence. This study presents a new method for placement of power quality measurement facilities to identify PQ problems. The power harmonics and capacitor switching transients are used as disturbance sources for illustration. The proposed method first utilises harmonic voltages and wavelet coefficients as PQ features. An enhanced genetic algorithm is proposed for solving the modified K-means clustering to place PQ measurement monitors. Simulation results for an 18-bus system show that the proposed approach is effective in comparison with the existing approaches.

Multilevel inverters are currently the subject of extensive investigation and are used primarily for medium and high voltage distribution systems. The work presented in this paper provides a cost-effective and realistic solution to mitigate power quality (PQ) problems. A Cascaded H-Bridge multilevel inverter (CHB-MLI) has been configured as a shunt active power filter (SAPF). It is well reported that large-scale use of power electronics-based devices leads to several PQ problems such as poor power factor, unregulated dc voltage, harmonics, voltage regulation etc. In this paper, an improved immune feedback control algorithm is proposed and developed to mitigate PQ issues by predicting the weighted active component of load current and to generate reference current for the grid. Extensive MATLAB simulation and experimental work have been reported for validation on a single-phase system. A low prototype model is developed in the laboratory to study and compare the steady-state and dynamic results of the proposed controller with conventional Least Mean Square (LMS) and Immune algorithm.

This paper presents an integration of S-Transform and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) technique for identifying the location of a switched capacitor causing a power quality problem. The transient caused by the capacitor switching is one of the important power quality (PQ) problems since it may adversely affect the system as well as sensitive loads. S-Transform has the ability to detect the disturbance correctly in the presence of noise riding on the signal. Hence, S-Transform technique is used for locating switched capacitors under noisy environment. In order to extract efficient features, capacitor switching signals are applied to two S-Transform algorithms and they are processed parallely. Those features are then applied to PNN for training and subsequently tested for automatic classification of switching signals. The simulation results reveal that the combination of S-Transform and PNN can effectively locate the switched capacitor even under the noisy environment.

The unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) is a power conditioning device, which is a integration of back to back connected shunt active power filter (APF) and series APF to a common DC link voltage. For improvement of power quality (PQ) problems in a three-phase four-wire distribution system, two topologies are proposed in this paper. A comparative analysis of these topologies along with the most common four-leg voltage source inverter (VSI) based topology of four-wire UPQC is discussed in this work. The performance of each topology of UPQC is evaluated for different PQ problems like power-factor correction, load balancing, current harmonic mitigation, voltage harmonic mitigation and source neutral current mitigation. The synchronous reference frame (SRF) theory is used as a control strategy of series and shunt APFs. The simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink enviournment are obtained, which support the effectiveness of these topologies of UPQC for power quality improvement.

This chapter introduces the custom power device to solve the various kinds of power quality (PQ) problems. It is generally known as flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) and D-FACTS (FACTs used for low voltage and low current rating in AC distribution system). The D-FACTS are various types like dynamic voltage restore (DVR), static compensator in distribution system (D-STATCOM), and unified power quality conditioner (UPQC). The third one is combination of DVR and D-STATCOM, which is known as UPQC. The UPQC can compensate all the PQ problems. Comprehensive knowledge of UPQC is presented here to understand the trade value of this device. This chapter is organized as follows: The evaluation of power electronic based devices is presented in the background part of this chapter where custom power devices (CPDs) are also discussed. And operating principle with the Matlab model of UPQC and results are presented in the section titled “Working Principle of Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC).” The scope of the one of the functional power electronic based devices are presented in section titled “Scope of UPQC.” At the end, this chapter is concluded.

Chapter 1 - Introductory chapter: effects of power quality problems on energy efficiency of power systems

In This work a power quality (PQ) problem in an industrial plant is analyzed and its possible solutions explored, specifically regarding voltage sags. It is analyzed a plant's electrical system sensitivity regarding voltage sags, how does the magnitude depression and its duration affect the performance of the electrical loads (mainly induction motors). Several proposals are discussed and explored for voltage sag mitigation and their feasibility for the plant's PQ problem. Finally, settings of the voltage sag mitigation equipment (timer or latching relay) are made analyzing voltage recovery times after voltage sag has occurred.

An increasing growth of non-linear load in the three-phase four-wire distribution system, results in various power quality problems in the distribution system. Custom power devices (CPD) have been evolved to solve the power quality problems in the distribution system. Among the various custom power devices, Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) is one of the effective solutions for solving the power quality problems. This paper reveals about Distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) for balancing of source currents, harmonic mitigation and neutral current compensation in three-phase four-wire distribution system. A synchronous reference frame (SRF) theory is projected for the control of DSTATCOM. Four-leg voltage source converter (VSC) with a dc capacitor is used as four-wire DSTATCOM. Here DSTATCOM is operated in load compensation mode. The first three-legs are used for balancing of source current and harmonic mitigation and the fourth leg is used for neutral current compensation. The compensation performance of DSTATCOM using the proposed control strategy is demonstrated using simulation results obtained from MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Problem. Electrical distribution networks are plagued by power quality problems, which have a negative impact on sensitive electrical loads. These problems include reactive current, low power factor on the load side, and voltage harmonics, voltage sags and voltage swells on the grid voltage side. To address these issues, a unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) that combines shunt and series compensators is suggested. The goal of the work is to implement a UPQC integrated with a photovoltaic (PV) system to mitigate power quality problems in the power system, and boosting the grid supply through power injection from the PV system. Methodology. One of the less complex and effective ways to improve the grid’s voltage quality is by using the unit vector template generation (UVTG) strategy as the composition technique (UPQC-P) through the UPQC series compensator. The synchronous reference frame (SRF) strategy through the UPQC shunt compensator to improve the current quality on the load side is used. To further optimize the SRF strategy, it is used the snake optimization (SO) to find the optimal values for the PI controller’s parameters. Results. The UPQC-PV is used to mitigation the power quality issues in the grid and loads by UVTG and SRF techniques in series and shunt compensators, respectively. Scientific novelty. The composition technique (UPQC-P) through a series compensator and uses the SO for tuning the PI controller in the shunt compensator. Practical value. This study reduces the total harmonic distortion (THD) in the load voltage to 0.57 %, while the THD in the grid voltage remains at 10 %. It restores the load voltage to its reference value of 230 V during voltage sags (down to 161 V) and swells (up to 300 V) in the grid. Additionally, it mitigates the low power factor on the load side (0.707 lagging) to achieve a unity power factor in grid current, balances the unbalanced load current to a balanced grid current, and enhances grid stability by injecting power from the PV system into the grid. References 33, table 3, figures 7.

Power Quality Problem (PQP) includes several kinds of problems such as harmonics and voltage sag. Locating PQP online can help take countermeasures, and it is very important. With help of mobile agents, PQP can be located with dynamically geographically changed agents. The Power Quality Management System (PQMS) is built on agents, and data transmission is implemented using Person to Person (P2P) and Foundations of Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA). As PQP location is a Multi-Objective Problem (MOP) system, a Feedback Balanced Genetic Algorithm (FBGA) is used to help decide the location of PQP. The algorithm for actual PQP modeling is not discussed, and FBGA is an important algorithm for data collection and ultimate analysis. In FBGA, feedback messages are used to adjust optimization rules, and balanced genetic algorithm is used to achieve the Patero solution for MOP. Convergence of the algorithm is analyzed. Implementation of the algorithm proves feasibility of the algorithm.