Optimal Design and Performance Analysis of Solar PV Integrated UPQC for Distribution Network

Abstract

The increasing number of electricity consumers results in power quality problems in the distribution system. Solar photovoltaic integrated unified power quality conditioner (UPQC-PV) is a widely adopted device that can improve a distribution system's voltage and current quality. This paper presents an optimal design and performance analysis of a unified power quality conditioner integrated with a double-stage solar photovoltaic system (UPQC-PV). A technique based on sequence component detection (SCD) and unit vector template generation (UVTG) is proposed for the UPQC-PV control. Using a SCD technique, the fundamental active component of the distorted load current is estimated, which is used to generate a reference signal for shunt compensator control. The UPQC-PV consists of shunt and series compensators; the shunt compensator eliminates the harmonic currents produced by nonlinear loads and extracts the active power generated by the solar PV array. In addition, the series compensator compensates for the grid side power quality problems such as voltage sags/swells. Hence, the proposed system can simultaneously perform clean energy generation and power quality improvement. The UPQC-PV system performance is evaluated in MATLAB-Simulink software under different grid conditions.