PV based DG Power Quality Improvement Using Integrated D-STATCOM under varying Insolation

Abstract

Abstract: The standalone grid connected Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been gradually increasing for generation of electrical energy due to ever increasing fuel and coal prices, as well as the environmental issues posed by conventional power plants. In this transition phase, power quality is at its expense, resulting in damage to equipment or appliances and lost in production. Inadequate power quality can be caused by network failures and switching operations, which primarily cause voltage dips, interruptions, transients, and network disturbances from loads which primarily produce flicker i.e., rapid voltage changes, harmonics and phase imbalance. In this paper PV is used as an external DC source for D-STATCOM (Distributed Static Synchronous Compensator) which is a FACTS device that can maintain and repair power quality limitations such as power factor correction, voltage control, load balancing and harmonic reduction. The PV-STATCOM system inverter is implemented by impending MPPT method using P&O algorithm so as to provide DC link voltage control and to improve transient response along with counteracting power quality issues. MATLAB/Simulink based simulation results are presented for the proposed PVSTATCOM model. The simulation results proves that the PV-STATCOM system has better Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and good reactive power compensation at different irradiance levels. Keywords: Photovoltaic (PV) systems, D-STATCOM (Distributed Static Synchronous Compensator), Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking), FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission System)