Analysis of voltage flickers using laboratory test set up

Abstract

Society has taken advantage of wind energy for thousands of years. Wind energy is a clean, non-polluting and renewable energy source that can be relied up on for the long-term future. A wind energy farm creates cost-effective, reliable and pollution free energy in large scale. It is clean, sustainable and affordable. A single wind turbine can be sufficient for the generation of energy for a household. Wind turbines create power without using fossil fuels which causes pollution, without producing greenhouse gases or radioactive or toxic wastes. Switching onto wind power will reduce global warming since it is eco-friendly and nonpolluting. Lot of research work is going on to make it more effective, viable and efficient. Voltage flicker is one of the main issues associated with the wind technology which has not being considered seriously so far. It is caused due to many factors such as variation in wind speed, vertical shear, horizontal shear as well as changing air density. It is also affected by the turbulence in air flow and the mechanical parameters of the wind turbine. The effect of blade parameters variation on voltage flicker is a matter of concern. It is important to study the variation of voltage flicker with the input parameters of wind turbine so as to minimize voltage fluctuations in the power supply. An analysis of output parameter of a wind turbine in the form of flicker voltage due to variation in input parameters obtained through experimentation using laboratory setup is presented in this paper.