CONTROL & RELIABILITY ISSUE OF EFFICIENT MICROGRID OPERATION USING HYBRID DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES

In this paper, the authors deal with the issue of power quality phenomena in the distribution system that affects the reliability of the power supply to sensitive loads. Traditional solutions to power quality problems have been discussed here and the use of a microgrid as a preferred solution is presented. When the conventional and non-conventional micro sources are combined with energy storage devices, they are called distributed resources (DR). The energy storage device of the DR provides the ride-through for the transient load demand. The DR is capable of providing reliable power supply to sensitive loads when connected in the form of a microgrid. The customer solution of UPS typically provides AC voltage to the load when the grid fails. Backup generation systems based on rotating machines may be used as an alternative to a UPS system to supply power to sensitive loads during temporary interruptions in grid power supply. However, such systems require a start-up time to deliver power, which would cause a brief interruption in the operation of sensitive loads. More recently, electrical generation systems that are dispersed and located near the load centers, commonly known as micro sources, distributed generation (DG) etc. are gaining popularity