Abstract
The ongoing diffusion of solid-state DC/DC converters makes possible a partial migration of electric power systems from the present AC paradigm to a future DC scenario. In addition, the power demand in the domestic environment is expected to grow considerably, for example, due to the progressive diffusion of electric vehicles, induction cooking and heat pumps. To face this evolution, the paper introduces a novel electric topology for a hybrid AC/DC smart house, based on the solid-state transformer technology. The electric scheme, voltage levels and converters types are thoroughly discussed to better integrate the spread of electric appliances, which are frequently based on internal DC buses, within the present AC distribution networks. Voltage levels are determined to guarantee high safety zones with negligible electric risk in the most exposed areas of the house. At the same time, the developed control schemes assure high power quality (voltage stability in the case of both load variations and network perturbations), manage power flows and local resources according to ancillary services requirements and increase the domestic network overall efficiency. Dynamic simulations are performed, making use of DIgSILENT PowerFactory software, to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed distribution scheme for next-generation smart houses under different operating conditions.
Highlights
In the last century, AC power systems became common practice thanks to the transformer, enabling the change of voltage levels and reaching higher efficiency over long distance power transmission, which were the main drawbacks of DC power systems
Considering the possible future developments in the residential field, this paper describes the conceptual design of a combined AC/DC multi-level smart house architecture, with the novelty of exploiting the solid-state transformer (SST) technology in the domestic network domain
A more accurate design procedure of the main AC/DC converter could focus on limiting the inverter size by optimally managing the local sources
Summary
AC power systems became common practice thanks to the transformer, enabling the change of voltage levels and reaching higher efficiency over long distance power transmission, which were the main drawbacks of DC power systems. Dynamic simulations of the domestic network are performed using conventional and well-grounded models of its main components (power converters, PV plants) to demonstrate the main advantages of the proposal with respect to existing connection schemes in terms of increased voltage stability and power quality This scheme is able to optimally integrate load, generation and storage management, aiming to provide ancillary services to the distribution network, such as voltage regulation and congestion reduction [16], dynamic mitigation of voltage sags and harmonic distortion [17], power factor correction, network stability support in terms of active and reactive power modulation (according to grid codes [18,19]) and phase currents balancing to compensate voltage unbalance issues [20,21,22,23].
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