Abstract---Renewable energy resources (RES) are being increasingly connected in distribution systems utilizing power electronic converters. This paper presents a control strategy for achieving maximum benefits from these grid-interfacing inverters when installed in 3-
Keywords---Active Power Filter (APF), Distributed Generation (DG), Distribution System, Grid Interconnection, Power Quality (PQ), Photo voltaic cell.
I.INTRODUCTIONRenewable sources of energy acquire growing importance due to its enormous consumption and exhaustion of fossil fuel. Also, solar energy is the most readily available source of energy and it is free. Moreover, solar energy is the best among all the renewable energy sources since, it is non-polluting. Photo voltaic arrays are used in many applications such as water pumping, street lighting in rural town, battery charging and grid connected PV systems. Seventy five percent of total global energy demand is supplied by the burning of fossil fuels. But increasing air pollution, global warming concerns, diminishing fossil fuels and their increasing cost have made it necessary to look towards renewable sources as a future energy solution. Since the past decade, there has been an enormous interest in many countries on renewable energy for power generation. The market liberalization and government's incentives have further accelerated the renewable energy sector growth. Renewable energy source (RES) integrated at distribution level is termed as distributed generation (DG). The utility is concerned due to the high penetration level of intermittent RES in distribution systems as it may pose a threat to network in terms of stability, voltage regulation and power-quality (PQ) issues [2]. Therefore, the DG systems are required to comply with strict technical and regulatory frameworks to ensure safe, reliable and efficient operation of overall network. With the advancement in power electronics and digital control technology, the DG systems can now be actively controlled to enhance the system operation with improved PQ at PCC.Recently, a few control strategies for grid connected inverters incorporating PQ solution have been proposed. In an inverter operates as active inductor at a certain frequency to absorb the harmonic current. But the exact calculation of network inductance in real-time is difficult and may deteriorate the control performance. A similar approach in which a shunt active filter acts as active conductance to damp out the harmonics in distribution network is proposed in [5]. In [6], a control strategy for renewable interfacing inverter based on-theory is proposed. In this strategy both load and inverter current sensing is required to compensate the load current harmonics. The non-linear load current harmonics may result in voltage harmonics and can create a serious PQ problem in the power system network.