A proposed reactive power controller for DG grid connected systems

Abstract

Most of currently grid connected Decentralized Generation (DG) systems are power electronics interfaced, and only manage their active power production. With industrial inductive loads, the utility grid has not only to supply their reactive power needs, but also to supply extra reactive power to compensate for the expected power factor deterioration caused by DG active power injection. Among various DG options, Fuel cell technology makes a clean, highly controllable and economically viable DG option. Local reactive power compensation is a particular feature of fuel cell systems, as they will always be very close to the point of usage of electricity. With smart control algorithm of the grid coupling inverter, it is possible to enable reactive power management of the fuel cell DG system. This paper presents a smart control algorithm of the fuel cell DG grid coupling inverter, which provides active/reactive power management capability for the DG unit. The controller modeling and performance validation is performed at a test system, for a proposed operation scenario using Matlab/Simulink and Simpower system blocks. This validation proves the capability of using the proposed controller for power factor improvement.