Power Quality Enhancement in Grid-Connected Renewable Energy Sources Using MC-UPQC

Abstract

In the present era the utilization of grid- connected Renewable Energy Systems (RES) has increased enormously. To meet the increased energy demands, renewable hybrid energy systems such as wind and solar systems are linked to the electricity grid. The inclusion of wind and solar energy to an electric grid has an impact on power quality (PQ). Power of sufficient quality is critical for industrial operations containing critical and sensitive loads. There are two major categories of distribution line problems. The first category is power quality and the second category is reliability of the power supplied. The first category consists of harmonic distortions, swells and impulses. Voltage sags and outages fall into the second category. Voltage sags are significantly more severe and can result in substantial damage.To address power quality issues in grid-connected RES, a proposed system called the Multi Converter-Unified Power Quality Conditioner (MC-UPQC) has been developed. The MC- UPQC can mitigate for voltage and current issues in multi-bus or multi-feeder systems at the same time. It consists a Voltage Source Converter (VSC) connected in parallel and two or more VSCs connected in series, working together to achieve this simultaneous compensation. The MC-UPQC is a useful tool in complex power distribution networks for improving power quality and addressing issues caused by factors such as lightning strikes, capacitor bank switching, and network defects.