Control Strategies for Enhancing Power Quality with Unified Power Quality Conditioner in a Solar-PV Integrated Utility System

Abstract

The electrical utility systems are well-liked as local energy systems because of their capacity to incorporate renewable energy, enhance energy effectiveness and strengthen the resilience of the power system. These benefits do, however, come with specific complications regarding control and power quality (PQ). PQ within a utility system is paramount to ensure the appropriate operation of connected devices and the well-being of the overall system. As a result, both voltage quality & current quality are significant. Control strategies in conjunction with cutting-edge power electronics devices (PED) offer a solid framework to handle PQ challenges. Hence, this paper’s proposed work discusses the application of a Solar-Photovoltaic (PV) fed Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) for power quality enhancement towards the supply grid network. The Solar-PV fed UPQC enhances PQ and maximizes solar energy utilisation, leading to an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution while injecting clean, renewable energy into the grid. In this paper, the control strategies for UPQC are based primarily on the Adaptive Leaky Least Mean Square (AL_LMS) algorithm as compared with the Synchronous Reference Frame (SRF) based theory for switching of series and shunt active converters of UPQC. This AL_LMS approach extracts reference signals to switch UPQC’s shunt and series voltage source converters (VSCs) by iteratively updating the weights. Thus, the control strategy applied to Solar-PV fed UPQC mitigates voltage problems like voltage sag and swell, current harmonic distortions and other PQ issues. The work is done in MATLAB/ Simulation software and simulation outcomes show the effectiveness of Solar-PV fed UPQC in improving power quality by maintaining within the IEEE-519 Standards.