Multi-operational solar photovoltaic microgrid with synchronization, backup and power quality enhancement ability

Abstract

The proposed three phase solar photovoltaic microgrid (SPV-MG) works as a multi-mode operational system. It operates under different modes of operations: 1) Daytime, in presence of sunlight, it transfers real power to three-phase loads and grid, also mitigates power quality issues and provides power balance, 2) During grid absence, it operates in standalone mode, gives power backup to local demand and stores excess solar generation into the battery storage (BS). 3) At night, in the absence of sunlight, the SPV-MG has zero power generation so the VSI (Voltage Source Inverter) acts as a Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM). It is capable of providing reactive power compensation, power factor correction (PFC), harmonics elimination, voltage regulation etc. which in turn improves the utilization factor of devices by nearly double-fold. 4) It has re-synchronization and isolation capability with respect to grid availability. A battery storage (BS) is attached at the DC bus of VSI to support the SPV-MG during peak demands and during grid and solar uncertainties. A laboratory prototype is developed to validate the performance with the experimental results.