Power quality and electromagnetic compatibility: special report, session 2

The scope of Session 2 (S2) has been defined as follows by the Session Advisory Group and the Technical Committee: Power Quality (PQ), with the more general concept of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and with some related safety problems in electricity distribution systems. Special focus is put on voltage continuity (supply reliability, problem of outages) and voltage quality (voltage level, flicker, unbalance, harmonics). This session will also look at electromagnetic compatibility (mains frequency to 150 kHz), electromagnetic interferences and electric and magnetic fields issues. Also addressed in this session are electrical safety and immunity concerns (lightning issues, step, touch and transferred voltages). The aim of this special report is to present a synthesis of the present concerns in PQ&EMC, based on all selected papers of session 2 and related papers from other sessions, (152 papers in total). The report is divided in the following 4 blocks: Block 1: Electric and Magnetic Fields, EMC, Earthing systems Block 2: Harmonics Block 3: Voltage Variation Block 4: Power Quality Monitoring Two Round Tables will be organised: - Power quality and EMC in the Future Grid (CIGRE/CIRED WG C4.24, RT 13) - Reliability Benchmarking - why we should do it? What should be done in future? (RT 15

Communication Subsystems for Emerging Wireless Technologies

The paper describes a multi-disciplinary design of modern communication systems. The design starts with the analysis of a system in order to define requirements on its individual components. The design exploits proper models of communication channels to adapt the systems to expected transmission conditions. Input filtering of signals both in the frequency domain and in the spatial domain is ensured by a properly designed antenna. Further signal processing (amplification and further filtering) is done by electronics circuits. Finally, signal processing techniques are applied to yield information about current properties of frequency spectrum and to distribute the transmission over free subcarrier channels

Power Quality Enhancement in Electricity Grids with Wind Energy Using Multicell Converters and Energy Storage

In recent years, the wind power industry is experiencing a rapid growth and more wind farms with larger size wind turbines are being connected to the power system. While this contributes to the overall security of electricity supply, large-scale deployment of wind energy into the grid also presents many technical challenges. Most of these challenges are one way or another, related to the variability and intermittent nature of wind and affect the power quality of the distribution grid. Power quality relates to factors that cause variations in the voltage level and frequency as well as distortion in the voltage and current waveforms due to wind variability which produces both harmonics and inter-harmonics. The main motivation behind work is to propose a new topology of the static AC/DC/AC multicell converter to improve the power quality in grid-connected wind energy conversion systems. Serial switching cells have the ability to achieve a high power with lower-size components and improve the voltage waveforms at the input and output of the converter by increasing the number of cells. Furthermore, a battery energy storage system is included and a power management strategy is designed to ensure the continuity of power supply and consequently the autonomy of the proposed system. The simulation results are presented for a 149.2 kW wind turbine induction generator system and the results obtained demonstrate the reduced harmonics, improved transient response, and reference tracking of the voltage output of the wind energy conversion system.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Intelligent Learning Control System Design Based on Adaptive Dynamic Programming

Adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) controller is a powerful neural network based control technique that has been investigated, designed, and tested in a wide range of applications for solving optimal control problems in complex systems. The performance of ADP controller is usually obtained by long training periods because the data usage efficiency is low as it discards the samples once used. Experience replay is a powerful technique showing potential to accelerate the training process of learning and control. However, its existing design can not be directly used for model-free ADP design, because it focuses on the forward temporal difference (TD) information (e.g., state-action pair) between the current time step and the future time step, and will need a model network for future information prediction. Uniform random sampling again used for experience replay, is not an efficient technique to learn. Prioritized experience replay (PER) presents important transitions more frequently and has proven to be efficient in the learning process. In order to solve long training periods of ADP controller, the first goal of this thesis is to avoid the usage of model network or identifier of the system. Specifically, the experience tuple is designed with one step backward state-action information and the TD can be achieved by a previous time step and a current time step. The proposed approach is tested for two case studies: cart-pole and triple-link pendulum balancing tasks. The proposed approach improved the required average trial to succeed by 26.5% for cart-pole and 43% for triple-link. The second goal of this thesis is to integrate the efficient learning capability of PER into ADP. The detailed theoretical analysis is presented in order to verify the stability of the proposed control technique. The proposed approach improved the required average trial to succeed compared to traditional ADP controller by 60.56% for cart-pole and 56.89% for triple-link balancing tasks. The final goal of this thesis is to validate ADP controller in smart grid to improve current control performance of virtual synchronous machine (VSM) at sudden load changes and a single line to ground fault and reduce harmonics in shunt active filters (SAF) during different loading conditions. The ADP controller produced the fastest response time, low overshoot and in general, the best performance in comparison to the traditional current controller. In SAF, ADP controller reduced total harmonic distortion (THD) of the source current by an average of 18.41% compared to a traditional current controller alone

Power quality improvement through a UPQC and a resonant observer-based mimo control strategy

Performance degradation is, in general, regarded as a power quality problem. One solution to recover grid performance is through the application of a unified power quality conditioner (UPQC). Although these devices are multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) systems, the most common control strategies consist of two decoupled controllers, which neglect the coupling effects and add uncertainty to the system. For this reason, this paper proposes a multivariable resonant observer-based control strategy of a UPQC system. This method includes all significant coupling effects between this system and the grid. This strategy results in a stability-based compensator, which differs from recently proposed strategies that are based on signal calculation and cannot assure closed-loop stability. In addition, this paper introduces a simplified controller tuning strategy based on optimal conventional methods without losing closed-loop performance. It implies that the controller can be easily tuned, despite the complexity of the MIMO dynamic model. The UPQC with the resonant observer is verified on an experimental setup for a single-phase system, obtaining three relevant results for power quality improvement: (1) harmonics compensation tested with a total harmonic distortion limit of 5%; (2) sags and swells mitigation; and (3) power factor correction, achieving a unitary value on the grid side.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Optimal Control of Power Quality in Microgrids Using Particle Swarm Optimisation

Driven by environmental protection, economic factors, conservation of energy resources, and technical challenges, the microgrid has emerged as an innovative small-scale power generation network. Microgrids consist of a cluster of Distributed Generation units that encompass a portion of an electric power distribution system and may rely on different energy sources. Functionally, the microgrid is required to provide adequate levels and quality of power to meet load demands. The issue of power quality is significant as it directly affects the characteristics of the microgrid’s operation. This problem can be defined as an occurrence of short to long periods of inadequate or unstable power outputs by the microgrid. In a stand-alone operation mode, the system voltage and frequency must be established by the microgrid, otherwise the system will collapse due to the variety in the microgrid component characteristics. The harmonic distortion of the output power waveforms is also a serious problem that often occurs because of the high speed operation of the converter switches. The long transient period is a critical issue that is usually caused by changing the operation mode or the load demand. Power sharing among the Distributed Generation units is also an important matter for sharing the load appropriately, particularly given that some renewable energy resources are not available continuously. In a utility connected microgrid, the reliable power quality mainly depends on the regulation of both active and reactive power, because the microgrid’s behaviour is mostly dominated by the bulk power system. Therefore, an optimal power control strategy is proposed in this thesis to improve the quality of the power supply in a microgrid scenario. This controller comprises an inner current control loop and an outer power control loop based on a synchronous reference frame and conventional PI regulators. The power control loop can operate in two modes: voltage-frequency power control mode and active-reactive power control mode. Particle Swarm Optimisation is an intelligent searching algorithm that is applied here for real-time self-tuning of the power control parameters. The voltage-frequency power controller is proposed for an inverter-based Distributed Generation unit in an autonomous operation mode. The results show satisfactory system voltage and frequency, high dynamic response, and an acceptable harmonic distortion level. The active-reactive power controller is adopted for an inverter-based Distributed Generation unit in a utility operation mode. This controller provides excellent regulation of the active and reactive power, in particular when load power has to be shared equally between the microgrid and utility. The voltage-frequency and active-reactive power control modes are used for a microgrid configured from two DG units in an autonomous operation mode. The proposed control strategy maintains the system voltage and frequency within acceptable limits, and injects sustained output power from one DG unit during a load change. The reliability of the system’s operation is investigated through developing a small-signal dynamic model for the microgrid. The results prove that the system was stable for the given operating point and under the proposed power controller. Consequently, this research reveals that the microgrid can successfully operate as a controllable power generation unit to support the utility, thus reducing the dependency on the bulk power system and increasing the market penetration of the micro-sources

Management of harmonic propagation in a marine vessel by use of optimization

Advances in power electronics drive systems for variable speed operation has enabled extensive use of such solutions in the propulsion and thruster systems of marine vessels. These solutions however introduce current and voltage distortions that compromises the overall power quality of the onboard electrical system. This paper presents and discusses one approach for generating the harmonic current reference for an active filter based on optimization. Two relevant results are revealed by this study: 1) lower THD values are attained by performing system optimization compared to local compensation of one load, and 2) the lower THD values are achieved with a smaller active filter rating than the one required for local load compensation.(c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works

Empowering and assisting natural human mobility: The simbiosis walker

This paper presents the complete development of the Simbiosis Smart Walker. The device is equipped with a set of sensor subsystems to acquire user-machine interaction forces and the temporal evolution of user's feet during gait. The authors present an adaptive filtering technique used for the identification and separation of different components found on the human-machine interaction forces. This technique allowed isolating the components related with the navigational commands and developing a Fuzzy logic controller to guide the device. The Smart Walker was clinically validated at the Spinal Cord Injury Hospital of Toledo - Spain, presenting great acceptability by spinal chord injury patients and clinical staf

Improved control for DFIG based wind power system under voltage dips using ADRC optimized by genetic algorithms

Many countries have focused on the study of the electrical energy production using wind generators. These studies include maintaining the production under disturbed conditions at the grid connection point of wind farms, and maintaining production during voltage dips. Electrical grid operators have established different requirements for connecting renewable energy production systems to electrical grids. In this research paper, we are interested in the study of the wind power system based on the Doubly Fed Induction Generator during a voltage dip. We are also developing a control approach based on Active Disturbance Rejection Control and Genetic Algorithms, which aims to control the stator flux variations which should be taken into account during the current controllers computing. This control strategy will allow the wind power system to remain connected to the grid under voltage dips, and to resume the normal operation after the fault disappearance. The model of the wind power system and the proposed control strategy, are tested in the MATLAB-Simulink software