EEC 670: Power Systems Operation and Control

Term Paper Report

on
INTERACTIVE DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
INTERFACE FOR FLEXIBLE MICRO-GRID
OPERATION IN SMART DISTRIBUTION
SYSTEMS

The work presented in this report represents only my own work. I have not
consulted with anybody or used somebody elses work, nor have I shared my
work with anybody else

Rizwan Ahmed Shaik

(2619170)
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INTRODUCTION
Distributed generation, defined as generation located at or near the load centers, is being
recognized as an environment friendly, reliable, and secure source of power which not only has
minimal negative social impacts but also serves to promote social welfare and identify the
distributed energy resources available and proposes methods to tap them. It studies the social
consequences of wide spread deployment of distributed systems and their accommodation into
the new liberalized energy market. Flexibility of distributed generation technologies are
operation, size and expandability. Flexible reaction to electrical energy price evolutions can be
one of the examples, allowing a DG to serve as a hedge against these price fluctuations.
Apparently, using distributed generation for continuous use or for peak shaving.
Reliability problems refer to sustained interruptions in electrical energy supply (outages). The
liberalization of energy markets makes customers more aware of the value of reliable electricity
supply. In many European countries, the reliability level has been very high, mainly because of
high engineering standards. High reliability level implies high investment and maintenance costs
for the network and generation infrastructure. Due to the incentives for cost effectiveness that
come from the introduction of competition in generation and from the re-regulation of the
network companies, it might be that reliability levels will decrease. However, for some
industries, such as chemical, petroleum, refining, paper, metal, telecommunication, a reliable
power supply is very important. Such companies may find the reliability of the grid supplied
electricity too low and thus be willing to invest in distributed generation units in order to
increase their overall reliability of supply.
Apart from large voltage drops to near zero (reliability problems), one can also have smaller
voltage deviations. The latter deviations are aspects of power quality. Power quality refers to the
degree to which power characteristics align with the ideal sinusoidal voltage and current
waveform, with current and voltage in balance. Thus, strictly speaking, power quality
encompasses reliability. Insufficient power quality can be caused by failures and switching
operations in the network (voltage dips and transients) and by network disturbances from loads
(flickers, harmonics and phase imbalance).
Introduction of renewables and by potential efficiency improvements. But in order to be a
credible alternative generation paradigm, distributed generation will have to overcome
significant technical, economic, regulatory and environmental hurdles. Flexible operation of
distributed generation (DG) units is a major objective in future smart power grids, so it could
benefit both the suppliers and consumers of power by optimal allocation of the Generating units
in accordance with the Distribution System and reducing the Electricity bills of the Consumers.

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The majorities of DG units are interfaced to grid and load via power electronics converters.
Current-controlled voltage-sourced inverters (VSIs) are commonly used for grid connection.
Under the smart grid environment, DG units should be included in the system operational control
framework, where they can be used to enhance system reliability by providing backup generation
in isolated mode, and to provide ancillary services (e.g. voltage support and reactive power
control) in the grid-connected mode.

Concept of Distributed Generation:

Distributed Generation is the energy generated or stored by a variety of small, grid-connected
devices referred to as distributed energy resources (DER). DERs mainly constitute nonconventional and renewable energy sources like solar PV, wind turbines, fuel cells, small-scale
hydro, tidal and wave generators, micro-turbines etc. These generation technologies are being
preferred for their high energy efficiency (micro-turbine or fuel cell based CHP systems), low
environmental impact (PV, wind, hydro etc.) and their applicability as uninterruptible power
supplies to power quality sensitive loads. They are not controlled by the Electrical Utilities rather
it is done by the one who is producing it individually.

Figure:1 Transformation of the Grid by implementing the Concept of Distributed Generation.

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System Configuration:
The Study System is taken from IEEE 1559 standard for low voltage applications. The adopted
study system represents a general low voltage distribution system, where different types of loads
and different numbers of DG units can be considered to be connected to the main feeder, thus it
is a generalized model. The DG units can be employed to work either parallel to the utility grid,
or in isolated mode to serve sensitive loads connected to the main feeder when the main breaker
(BR) is open. Without loss of generality, the performance of the micro-grid system is studied
under the presence of two DG units, supplying general types of loads. The load on the second
feeder is an inductive load where a 2.5-KVAr power factor correction capacitor bank is also
considered to be connected to the main feeder. The adopted load model is in line with the IEEE
1547 test load used in DG applications. The nonlinear load is a three-phase diode rectier with
an load at the dc-side. The addition of the diode rectier helps in assessing the effectiveness of
the proposed controller in rejecting voltage harmonics associated with nonlinear loading, and
rejecting load-DG-unit-grid interactions at harmonic frequencies.

Figure: 2 Schematic diagram of a single DG unit as the building block of the sample
micro-grid system

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Power electronic converters and controllers are extensively used for different types of domestic,
agricultural and industrial applications. Ac-to-dc converters are widely used for the dc voltage
and power control e.g. charging of batteries in inverters, UPS, cell-phones and speed control of
dc motors etc. A conventional thyristor or power semiconductor device based ac-to-dc converter,
with a dc source and an inductor or highly inductive load at the load side, operates in inversion
mode when the switching angle exceeds
known as grid-connected inverter. Thus power flow
takes place from dc source to ac grid. These ac to-dc converters are also called controlled
rectifiers. The average power flow through them is unidirectional as well as bi-directional. To
analyze the performance of Voltage Source Inverter used in the Design let us see its operation
with RLE load.

Components of a new dc-to-ac controlled Inverter

A full-wave converter circuit with RLE load works in two modes of operation i.e. rectification
mode and inverter mode. It works in inversion mode when the switching angle is greater than
90. Although two dc sources or a dc source with center-tap arrangement are needed but it
dispenses with a bulky and costly dc inductor. In the proposed circuit, the line current flowing
through the inductor is bi-directional.

(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure : 3 (a),(b),(c) Ac-dc Controlled Inverter Circuit with Conduction Mode
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Modes of Operation of DG :
In general the DG has two modes of Operation.
1) Grid Connected Mode
2) Islanded Mode.
1) Grid Connected Mode:
In this mode of operation the Distributed Generating units are connected to the main grid by the
Circuit Breaker B1,B4 respectively. The inductive load and the capacitor bank are activated in
this scenario. The reactive power command is set to zero, whereas the active power command
experiences a step change from 5 to 10 kW at 1s. Voltage uctuation in this mode is the natural
result of the absence of voltage control at the point of common coupling. In addition to active
power regulation, the DG unit can contribute to the voltage reliability at the point of common
coupling by allowing bus voltage control (i.e,PV mode).
This mode can be activated once voltage sags(e.g due to upstream faults)are detected. Under
these conditions, the voltage control mode is activated to inject reactive power during the sag
period to provide fault-ride-through performance. Accordingly, the economic operation of the
DG unit will not be compromised. On the other hand, in long radial feeders and weak grids,
existing DG units can be used for continuous voltage support. The Figure 4 shows the
effectiveness of the proposed control strategy in terms of providing the DG unit with the faultride-through capability.

Figure 4 (a) : Grid Connected Mode with Step Change in Load

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2) Isolated Mode:
In this mode of operation the Distributed Generating units are disconnected to the main grid. The
transitional performance of the study system under the proposed control scheme from grid
connected to islanded mode is evaluated by emulating an islanding event via opening the breaker
switch (BR) at the upstream feeder in Fig. 4(b) initially, the micro-grid system is connected to
the grid and both DG units are working in the PV-bus mode. The study system is islanded at s by
opening the breaker BR. In this paper, the smart distribution study system is assumed to be
equipped with a power line communication-based islanding detection scheme, where the
islanding event is detected with some communication delays after the upstream feeder breaker
goes open and this event is signaled to the supervisory control unit.

Figure 4 (b): Dynamic Performance of Micro Grid under Isolated Mode of Operation.

Proposed control scheme:

The external disturbances will be imposed on the DG interface during mode transition and
network/load disturbances. On the other hand, internal disturbances will be generated due to
control function switching between different modes in the conventional hierarchical control
structure. To overcome these issues and to achieve a exible and robust operation of DG units
under the smart grid environment while maintaining the hierarchical control structure, the
proposed control scheme , it utilizes a xed hierarchical powervoltagecurrent control structure
in both grid-connected and isolated modes. This will minimize the undesired voltage transients
generated by switching from a current-controlled interface to a voltage-controlled interface in
conventional control techniques.
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Figure: 5 Proposed Control Scheme Layout

Frequency Characteristics:

Figure : 6 Open Loop Frequency Characteristics

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Conclusion:
We have seen that though distributed generation has a number of advantages over conventional
central power generation, and is most suitable for tapping small power resources scattered over a
large area, yet it still can't replace the grid. Grid based central power system is still preferred for
most of the cases except in situations when the cost of installation of transmission system is too
high. Thus an ideal power system, which has the benefits of DG as well as grid, can be formulated
by accommodating these DGs into the grid along with central power units so that surplus power
generated at DGs can be easily sent to regions, which have a deficit.
Through this paper, the control, islanding detection, load shedding, and reclosure
have been proposed for the operation of grid-connected and intentional-islanding DGs. A
controller was designed with two interface controls: one for grid-connected operation and the
other for intentional islanding operation. An islanding-detection scheme, which was
responsible for the switch between the two controllers, was presented.
The proposed control scheme utilizes a xed powervoltagecurrent cascaded control structure
with robust internal model voltage controller to maximize the disturbance rejection performance
within the DG interface, and to minimize control function switching. The proposed control scheme
has a simple and linear control structure that facilitates exible DG operation in the grid-connected
mode and autonomous micro-grids, yields robust transition between grid-connected and islanded
modes either in PQ or PV operational modes, and provides robustness against islanding detection
delays due to the xed control structure under different modes of operation. Therefore, the
proposed control scheme enhances the exibility of micro-grid operation under the dynamic nature
of future smart distribution systems.

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Critical Assessment:

The Author didnt consider the security constraints when the DG is operating when the
main generator is isolated due to fault.

The type of elements used for Commutation is not discussed in the paper.

It didnt explain the region in case wherein the DG need to shut down due to fault in that
particular region.

Future Work:

We need to define regions for the DG operation during normal mode and Fault condition.

The efficiency of the DGs need to checked and the optimal selection based on type of
load it is feeding.

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