Voltage Profiling and Control of a Sub-Transmission Network with Integrated Renewable Energy Sources-A Case Study

Abstract

Traditional power generation methods are causing environmental issues. Some of the other drawbacks like line loading will increase the losses and the response time will be very high, which cannot be supporting the future electric vehicle and charging infrastructure loads. The advancement in power electronic converter system can greatly improve the performance of the distributed generation (renewable sources) and utilization (EV load and charging station, smart electronic load). The line loading and response time can be greatly improved by a novel power converter. This conjunction of different sources and loads controlling one another with help of a power converter (virtual synchronous machine) is known as a microgrid system. It can be based on renewables (RES) and non-renewable forms like Photovoltaic (PV) systems, fuel cells, wind systems, or diesel generators. Some of the renewable sources are intermittent (PV, Wind) which causes voltage fluctuations. This paper mainly emphasises the full utilization of power converter rating. The converter can operate in multiple modes one of them is full active power mode and the other is reactive power mode. If the source PV and wind is unable to generate active power at full capacity at that time power converter capability can be used for reactive power generation. In addition, it proposes a reactive power market for the DG system based on renewable sources. The voltage profile for the IEEE 9 bus system was examined using matpower considering, additional future loads and sources that could have a significant impact on the distribution system. These negative consequences have been mitigated by carefully selecting the size and the location of the renewable energy sources and controlling the power electronic converter accordingly with suitable control algorithm.