Power Quality

Electrical power is becoming one of the most dominant factors in our society. Power generation, transmission, distribution and usage are undergoing signifi cant changes that will aff ect the electrical quality and performance needs of our 21st century industry. One major aspect of electrical power is its quality and stability – or so called Power Quality. The view on Power Quality did change over the past few years. It seems that Power Quality is becoming a more important term in the academic world dealing with electrical power, and it is becoming more visible in all areas of commerce and industry, because of the ever increasing industry automation using sensitive electrical equipment on one hand and due to the dramatic change of our global electrical infrastructure on the other. For the past century, grid stability was maintained with a limited amount of major generators that have a large amount of rotational inertia. And the rate of change of phase angle is slow. Unfortunately, this does not work anymore with renewable energy sources adding their share to the grid like wind turbines or PV modules. Although the basic idea to use renewable energies is great and will be our path into the next century, it comes with a curse for the power grid as power fl ow stability will suff er. It is not only the source side that is about to change. We have also seen signifi cant changes on the load side as well. Industry is using machines and electrical products such as AC drives or PLCs that are sensitive to the slightest change of power quality, and we at home use more and more electrical products with switching power supplies or starting to plug in our electric cars to charge batt eries. In addition, many of us have begun installing our own distributed generation systems on our rooft ops using the latest solar panels. So we did look for a way to address this severe impact on our distribution network. To match supply and demand, we are about to create a new, intelligent and self-healing electric power infrastructure. The Smart Grid. The basic idea is to maintain the necessary balance between generators and loads on a grid. In other words, to make sure we have a good grid balance at all times. But the key question that you should ask yourself is: Does it also improve Power Quality? Probably not! Further on, the way how Power Quality is measured is going to be changed. Traditionally, each country had its own Power Quality standards and defi ned its own power quality instrument requirements. But more and more international harmonization efforts can be seen. Such as IEC 61000-4-30, which is an excellent standard that ensures that all compliant power quality instruments, regardless of manufacturer, will produce of measurement instruments so that they can also be used in volume applications and even directly embedded into sensitive loads. But work still has to be done. We still use Power Quality standards that have been writt en decades ago and don’t match today’s technology any more, such as fl icker standards that use parameters that have been defi ned by the behavior of 60-watt incandescent light bulbs, which are becoming extinct. Almost all experts are in agreement - although we will see an improvement in metering and control of the power fl ow, Power Quality will suff er. This book will give an overview of how power quality might impact our lives today and tomorrow, introduce new ways to monitor power quality and inform us about interesting possibilities to mitigate power quality problems. Regardless of any enhancements of the power grid, “Power Quality is just compatibility” like my good old friend and teacher Alex McEachern used to say. Power Quality will always remain an economic compromise between supply and load. The power available on the grid must be suffi ciently clean for the loads to operate correctly, and the loads must be suffi ciently strong to tolerate normal disturbances on the grid

Power Management Strategies for a Wind Energy Source in an Isolated Microgrid and Grid Connected System

This thesis focuses on the development of power management control strategies for a direct drive permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) based variable speed wind turbine (VSWT). Two modes of operation have been considered: (1) isolated/islanded mode, and (2) grid-connected mode. In the isolated/islanded mode, the system requires additional energy sources and sinks to counterbalance the intermittent nature of the wind. Thus, battery energy storage and photovoltaic (PV) systems have been integrated with the wind turbine to form a microgrid with hybrid energy sources. For the wind/battery hybrid system, several energy management and control issues have been addressed, such as DC link voltage stability, imbalanced power flow, and constraints of the battery state of charge (SOC). To ensure the integrity of the microgrid, and to increase its flexibility, dump loads and an emergency back-up AC source (can be a diesel generator set) have been used to protect the system against the excessive power production from the wind and PV systems, as well as the intermittent nature of wind source. A coordinated control strategy is proposed for the dump loads and back up AC source. An alternative control strategy is also proposed for a hybrid wind/battery system by eliminating the dedicated battery converter and the dump loads. To protect the battery against overcharging, an integrated control strategy is proposed. In addition, the dual vector voltage control (DVVC) is also developed to tackle the issues associated with unbalanced AC loads. To improve the performance of a DC microgrid consisting wind, battery, and PV, a distributed control strategy using DC link voltage (DLV) based control law is developed. This strategy provides simpler structure, less frequent mode transitions, and effective coordination among different sources without relying on real-time communication. In a grid-connected mode, this DC microgrid is connected to the grid through a single inverter at the point of common coupling (PCC). The generated wind power is only treated as a source at the DC side for the study of both unbalanced and balanced voltage sag issues at a distribution grid network. The proposed strategy consists of: (i) a vector current control with a feed-forward of the negative-sequence voltage (VCCF) to compensate for the negative sequence currents; and (ii) a power compensation factor (PCF) control for the VCCF to maintain the balanced power flow between the system and the grid. A sliding mode control strategy has also been developed to enhance the overall system performance. Appropriate grid code has been considered in this case. All the developed control strategies have been validated via extensive computer simulation with realistic system parameters. Furthermore, to valid developed control strategies in a realistic environment in real-time, a microgrid has been constructed using physical components: a wind turbine simulator (WTS), power electronic converters, simulated grid, sensors, real-time controllers and protection devices. All the control strategies developed in this system have been validated experimentally on this facility. In conclusion, several power management strategies and real-time control issues have been investigated for direct drive permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) based variable speed wind turbine system in an islanded and grid-connected mode. For the islanded mode, the focuses have been on microgrid control. While for the grid-connected mode, main consideration has been on the mitigation of voltage sags at the point of common coupling (PCC)

Wind Power Integration into Power Systems: Stability and Control Aspects

Power network operators are rapidly incorporating wind power generation into their power grids to meet the widely accepted carbon neutrality targets and facilitate the transition from conventional fossil-fuel energy sources to clean and low-carbon renewable energy sources. Complex stability issues, such as frequency, voltage, and oscillatory instability, are frequently reported in the power grids of many countries and regions (e.g., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and South Australia) due to the substantially increased wind power generation. Control techniques, such as virtual/emulated inertia and damping controls, could be developed to address these stability issues, and additional devices, such as energy storage systems, can also be deployed to mitigate the adverse impact of high wind power generation on various system stability problems. Moreover, other wind power integration aspects, such as capacity planning and the short- and long-term forecasting of wind power generation, also require careful attention to ensure grid security and reliability. This book includes fourteen novel research articles published in this Energies Special Issue on Wind Power Integration into Power Systems: Stability and Control Aspects, with topics ranging from stability and control to system capacity planning and forecasting

2d Suspended Fet Technology: Overcoming Scattering Effect For Ultrasensitive Reliable Biosensor

TMDs such as MoS2 is playing an important role in the field of FETs, photodetectors, thin film transistors and efficient biosensors because of their direct band-gap, high mobility, and biocompatibility. Despite these strengths, the performance and reliability of such atomic layer are easily influenced by supporting substrate. Interaction between the supporting substrate and MoS2 implies that interface control is vital for performance of devices consisting of monolayer MoS2. In particular, the Silicon dioxide (SiO2) supporting substrate has an uneven morphology and is chemically active because of trapped environmental gases, unknown functional groups, chemical adsorbates, and charges. Thus, adding another layer of MoS2 on the top of SiO2 cannot contribute charge transport clearly, which leads to the unreliable function of every single device. To solve the interface problem, suspended 2D layer devices have been reported by wet etching silicon di oxide underneath the monolayer. Freestanding MoS2 has shown 10 times greater back gate electronic mobility than the supporting on the SiO2 substrate. However, the existing SiO2 requires hazardous chemical etchants such as hydrofluoric acid (HF), which is difficult to handle and affects the 2D film structure and purity. Secondly, freestanding MoS2 sags between the two electrodes because of the high spacing (~ 2 µm), which makes it impossible to coat another layer such as hafnium oxide (HfO2) and antibodies on top of monolayer. Therefore, this structure impedes making top gate FET biosensors, which allows for only back gating. However, back gate mobility is far lesser than the top gate mobility which hinders making a highly sensitive FET-based biosensor because the sensitivity of a sensor depends on its mobility. In this work, CVD grown MoS2 channel material is transferred on self-assembled photolithographically patterned nano-gaps to achieve suspension and is covered with HfO2 to eliminate the direct functionalization of channel material. These nano-gap arrays provide mechanical strength to the monolayer and do not allow the supporting substrate to touch after coating another thin insulating layer as well as linkers/antibodies. HfO2 can be easily functionalized by silane-based linkers and antibodies (E-coli antibodies) to bring variation to the suspended 2D material by targeting a charged biomolecule (E-coli). In addition, termination of the supporting substrate leads to decrement of subthreshold swing which is inversly proportional to the sensitivity of the FET biosensor. The proposed FET biosensor has the capability to detect one molecule because of its single atomic layer as a channel material, its scalability due to the involvement of optical photolithography, and its fast response because of higher mobility

Intelligent voltage dip mitigation in power networks with distributed generation

Includes bibliographical references.The need for ensuring good power quality (PQ) cannot be over-emphasized in electrical power system operation and management. PQ problem is associated with any electrical distribution and utilization system that experiences any voltage, current or frequency deviation from normal operation. In the current power and energy scenario, voltage-related PQ disturbances like voltage dips are a fact which cannot be eliminated from electrical power systems since electrical faults, and disturbances are stochastic in nature. Voltage dip tends to lead to malfunction or shut down of costly and mandatory equipment and appliances in consumers’ systems causing significant financial losses for domestic, commercial and industrial consumers. It accounts for the disruption of both the performance and operation of sensitive electrical and electronic equipment, which reduces the efficiency and the productivity of power utilities and consumers across the globe. Voltage dips are usually experienced as a result of short duration reduction in the r.m.s. (r.m.s.- root mean square) value of the declared or nominal voltage at the power frequency and is usually followed by recovery of the voltage dip after few seconds. The IEEE recommended practice for monitoring electric power quality (IEEE Std. 1159-2009, revised version of June 2009), provides definitions to label an r.m.s. voltage disturbance based upon its duration and voltage magnitude. These disturbances can be classified into transient events such as voltage dips, swells and spikes. Other long duration r.m.s. voltage variations are mains failures, interruption, harmonic voltage distortion and steady-state overvoltages and undervoltages. This PhD research work deals with voltage dip phenomena only. Initially, the present power network was not designed to accommodate renewable distributed generation (RDG) units. The advent and deployment of RDG over recent years and high penetration of RDG has made the power network more complex and vulnerable to PQ disturbances. It is a well-known fact that the degree of newly introduced RDG has increased rapidly and growing further because of several reasons, which include the need to reduce environmental pollution and global warming caused by emission of carbon particles and greenhouse gases, alleviating transmission congestion and loss reduction. RDG ancillary services support especially voltage and reactive power support in electricity networks are currently being recognized, researched and found to be quite useful in voltage dip mitigation

Voltage sag and momentary interruption ride-through for adjustable speed drives

The awareness of electric power quality has increased over the past decade as electronic equipment has become more susceptible to power disturbances. The most disruptive power disturbances are voltage sags and momentary interruptions and their effect on adjustable speed drives (ASDs) is studied in this thesis. Several solutions have been suggested to provide only voltage sag ride-through to ASDs, but most solutions focus on ASDs with passive rectifiers since they hold the largest share of the market. This thesis focuses on ASDs with active rectifiers, which is an emerging and growing market due to the advantages of four quadrant operation and reduced harmonics offered. A solution is presented which provides an ASD with an active rectifier with the capability to ride through the most common sags in order to reduce the frequency at which the ASD trips and thereby increase its reliability. In order to provide ASDs with the capability to ride through momentary interruptions, it is necessary to interface an energy storage system to the ASD. Flywheels, ultra-capacitors and batteries are evaluated for use in an energy storage system to provide voltage sag and momentary interruption ride-through and a detailed comparison of six systems based on these technologies is presented. The interface circuit between the energy storage system and ASD has a significant influence on the performance of the energy storage system and therefore interface circuits to ASDs with passive and active rectifiers are studied. The addition of an ultra-capacitor energy storage system to an ASD with an active rectifier in order to provide ride-through of deeper sags and momentary interruptions is studied and a fuzzy logic controller is designed to enhance system performance. Initially, no communication between the ASD and the ultra-capacitor system is assumed and the ultra-capacitor system can therefore be added as a retro-fit to an existing ASD. It is, however, foreseen that the market for ASDs with ride-through capability of voltage sags and momentary interruptions will grow and the concepts for an integrated design of an ASD and an energy storage system are presented