Stand-alone power system

About: Stand-alone power system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8650 publications have been published within this topic receiving 192397 citations. The topic is also known as: Stand-alone photovoltaic power system.

The Impact of Distributed Generation in the Distribution Networks' Voltage Profile and Energy Losses

Abstract: The worldwide increasing demand for electricity, coupled with governmental policy changes for "green" energy has led to significant interest in distributed generation (DG). Integrating DG into an electricity network, especially close to load centres, has many significant benefits but also brings with it many drawbacks such as voltage drop, and power losses. In this paper the impact of three different types of distributed generation (diesel generator, wind turbine and photovoltaic (PV)) on distribution networks' voltage profile and power losses is studied. NEPLAN software and the extended Newton-Raphson method have been used in the analysis. The obtained results show that different types of DG influence differently the distribution network and that their precise location and size are vital in reducing power losses and improving the voltage stability.

Power Converters, Control, and Energy Management for Distributed Generation

Abstract: Distributed generation (DG) is expected to play a vital role in the future to improve the quality of human life. DG and its integration to the local AC grid provide options for economical, continuous, and bidirectional power flow (utility interface). In addition, it provides a back-up to support during grid failure or blackouts. Extensive promotion of the DC grid is also proposed for the future to facilitate easy integration of renewable resources. Low-voltage DC grid derived from DG is safe and may cover a significant portion of residential load, which is mostly DC load avoiding inefficient AC/DC power supply. Vehicles in the smart grid have introduced a concept of living and mobility, i.e., sustainable living and low carbon mobility and are foreseen as a part of future microgrid. Research is needed to push and commercialize these technologies to make the environment clean by replacing conventional generation systems. This “Special Section on Power Converters, Control, and Energy Management for Distribution Generation” of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, is a step forward to promote and encourage extensive investigations in the areas associated with DG. In all, 16 papers were selected, which have one or more very unique features for the proposed applications. The topics range from new high gain DC/DC converters to inverters for solar PV integration on one side and development of effective test bed to brushless generation systems for potential DG applications on the other. To facilitate an in-depth survey of the published papers, the Guest Editors will now examine one by one the different contributions by highlighting the most noteworthy developments and findings.

Real-Time Power Balancing in Electric Grids With Distributed Storage

Abstract: Power balancing is crucial for the reliability of an electric power grid. In this paper, we consider an aggregator coordinating a group of distributed storage (DS) units to provide power balancing service to a power grid through charging or discharging. We present a real-time, distributed algorithm that enables the DS units to determine their own charging or discharging amounts. The algorithm accommodates a wide spectrum of vital system characteristics, including time-varying power imbalance amount and electricity price, finite battery size constraints, cost of using external energy sources, and battery degradation. We develop a modified Lyapunov optimization framework for real-time power balancing and provide a fast iterative method for distributed implementation. The two components interact through a novel cost cushion parameter that tunes the trade-off between system performance and convergence speed. We show analytically that the algorithm converges quickly and provides asymptotically optimal performance as the capacity of DS units increases. We further study through simulation the algorithm performance over a wide range of parameter values and demonstrate that it is highly competitive over a greedy alternative.

Proposition of a PV/tidal powered micro-hydro and diesel hybrid system: A southern Bangladesh focus

Abstract: Bangladesh being a developing country is struggling for the self-sufficiency of electric power for a very long time. In this run renewable energy can play an important role for electricity generation. Bangladesh abuts by Bay of Bengal, as a result the southern areas face around 2∼5 m of tidal head/height rise and fall and as it is in the tropical region it gets an average daylight of 7∼8 hper day. Thus the hydro (tidal) energy and solar energy can be the key points to meet the scarcity of power. This paper discusses a model of possible small hybrid power generation system consisting of a PV generation unit with storage and a micro-hydro generation unit and a diesel generator which can mitigate the rising energy demand at the southern areas of Bangladesh. In this paper the economic viability is discussed along with the technical aspects to set up such system via HOMER analysis. Moreover the system cost was analyzed together with a comparison of other system costs of similar capacity.