Doaa Khalil Ibrahim

Citation:

Ahmed, M. A., D. K. Ibrahim, and M. Gilany, "Electric Spring Technology in Small Scale Residential Microgrid", 21st International Middle East Power Systems Conference, MEPCON, Tanta University, Egypt, December 17-19, 2019.

Date Presented:

Abstract:

Energy communities worldwide and in Egypt specifically encourage the household customers toward the renewable energy investment by utilizing grid-connected renewable generators (i.e. PV and wind turbines). Grid stability and power quality become the major concerns for the grid operators as they are too much affected during the increasing penetration of distributed renewable generators and also the growth of non-linear loads at end users. Electric spring (ES) technology is recently applied as distributed voltage controllers intended to stabilize the electrical grid in the presence of the distributed generators and the non-linear loads of the consumers. Consumers' satisfaction towards the grid stability is very essential as most of the household applications include sensitive loads that require a clean power with definite voltage value. This paper analyzes and verifies the electric spring technology in a household application with a renewable energy investment through a grid-connected PV panel, while a standby diesel generator operates in case of utility failure. The proportional-integral (PI) controller of ES has been successfully optimized using a genetic algorithm. A developed MATLAB/SIMULINK model is tested under a real household loading curve, typical PV generation profile in sunny/cloudy days, dynamic response of the standby diesel generator, and the utility disturbances (i.e. voltage decrease, increase, and fluctuation). For all aforementioned tested disturbances, the ES has succeeded to stabilize the voltage for the household sensitive appliances (e.g. computers, TV, washing machine, etc.).