Second International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology, ICETET-09

The Role of Power Electronics in Renewable Energy Systems Research and Development
S. M. Shinde, K. D. Patil, Ms. S. S. Khairnar and W. Z. Gandhare
Abstract Power electronics (PE) is an application oriented and interdisciplinary area. It uses power semiconductor devices to perform switching action in order to achieve a desired conversion strategy. The PE plays crucial role of conversion and control electrical power. Therefore, PE based power converters are also widely used in renewable energy systems. This papers deals only with the wind and solar-PV systems as they are the most promising renewable energy sources for generation of electricity. Therefore, sustainable growth of wind and solar-PV powered electricity generation is expected in the years to come. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and highlight the role of PE in the research and development of renewable energy systems. To illustrate and highlight the role of PE in research and development of renewable energy systems using wind and Solar-PV, two cases of each type are presented in this paper. Index TermsPower Electronics, Renewable Energy Systems, Wind Power. Solar-PV, Stand-Alone System, Hybrid-System

INTRODUCTION
renewable energy systems. To illustrate and highlight the role of PE in research and development of renewable energy systems using wind and Solar-PV, two cases of each type are presented in this paper. In case of wind power, the development of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) in place of conventional induction generator (IG) is become possible only because of PE. Also, due to random variations in the wind speeds, the power from wind power generator is randomly fluctuating and uncertain. Due to developments in the field of PE, it is now possible to store the energy during high wind speeds/light load and utilizing the same energy very efficiently, during the low wind speed/full load period. Thus, the wind power quality is considerably improved. In case of solar-pv, the development of intelligent battery charging controllers in place of conventional battery charging controllers is become possible only because of PE. Also, efficient and intelligent converters made it possible to develop and use wind-solar hybrid systems for electricity generation on large scale.

OWER Electronics (PE) deals with conversion and control of electrical power with the help of electronic switching devices. One advantage of the switching mode of power conversion is its high efficiency, which can be 96% to 99% [1]. High efficiency saves electricity. In addition, PE devices are more easily cooled than analog or digital electronics devices. PE is often defined as a hybrid technology that involves the disciplines of power and electronics. Modern solid-state PE apparatus is highly efficient compared to the traditional M-G sets, mercury-arc converters, and gas tube electronics. The equipment is static and has a low cost, small size, high reliability, and long life. Essentially, the importance of PE can be defined as close to that of computers. Globally, electrical energy consumption is growing by leaps and bounds to improve our standard of living. Most of the worlds energy is produced in fossil and nuclear fuel power plants. Fossil fuel plants create environmental pollution problems, whereas nuclear plants have safety problems. PE helps energy conservation by improved efficiency of utilization. This not only provides an economic benefit, but helps solve environmental problems [1]. Currently, there is urgent need and hence, a growing trend toward using environmentally clean and safe renewable power sources, such as wind and solar-photovoltaics (Solar-PV), which are heavily dependent on PE. The recent developments in the field of PE have significant impacts on research and development of renewable energy systems for generation of electricity. The wind and Solar-PV are the most promising renewable energy sources for electricity generation. This paper highlights the role of PE in research and development of wind and solar-pv based

WIND POWER

S.M. Shinde is with the Department of Electrical Engg., Govt. College of Engg., Aurangabad (MS-India), E-mail: [email protected].. K. D. Patil is Research Scholar in Department of Elect. Engg., Govt. College of Engg, Aurangabad (MS-India), E-mail: [email protected]. Ms. S. S. Khairnar is with the Department of Electrical Engg., KKW IEER, Nashik, (MS-India), E-mail: [email protected]. W. Z. Gandhare is the Principal of Government College of Engg. Aurangabad (MS-India), E-mail: [email protected].

2.1 Introduction The first wind powered electricity was produced by a machine built by Charles F. Brush in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888. It had a rated power of 12 kW (DC). Direct current electricity production continued in the form of small-scale, stand-alone (not connected to a grid) systems until the 1930's when the first large scale AC turbine was constructed in the USA. There was then a general lull in interest until the 1970's when the fuel crises sparked a revival in research and development work in North America (USA and Canada) and Europe (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK). Modern wind turbine generators are highly sophisticated machines, taking full advantage of state-of-theart technology, led by improvements in aerodynamic and structural design, materials technology and mechanical, electrical power and control engineering and capable of producing several megawatts of electricity. Large wind farms or

978-0-7695-3884-6/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE

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load point. Dynamic compensation of reactive power is provided by a STATCOM located at the point of wind farm connection. The 9 MW wind farm have conventional wind turbine systems consisting of squirrel-cage induction generators and variable pitch wind turbines [5].

Fig. 1. Global annual installed capacity growth from 1996 to 2008

Fig. 3. Simulink Model of a Test System

In order to highlight the role of PE based STATCOM. The Simulink model of a test system is operated in two different modes I. Without PE Based STATCOM, and
Fig. 2. Yearwise installed capacity (MW) in India

II. With PE Based STATCOM In each case the pu voltage at 33 kV bus-1 and bus2 are measured. So that, the effect of STATCOM can be observed.

wind power stations have become a common sight in many countries on the globe. In fact, the grid connected wind capacity is undergoing the fastest rate of growth of any form of electricity generation. Fig.1 shows the global annual installed capacity growth from 1996 to 2008 [2]. Fig.2 shows year wise installed capacity (MW) in INDIA. As on 31st March 2009, the total wind power installed capacity in India has gone to 10242.3 MW [3]. In spite of the fact that, wind power suffers from disadvantages such as, fluctuating nature, poor power quality, and lack of active and reactive power control, there is substantial growth in the wind based electricity generation. This is due to the fact that, todays wind power generation systems could overcome the above disadvantages due to PE. In this way PE is playing vital role in the development and improvement in the wind power generation systems. There are number of applications of PE in the field of wind power generation systems. However, mainly, PE is used for power conditioning and control in wind power generation systems. Due to lack of space only two examples are presented in this paper to illustrate and highlight the role of PE in the wind power generation systems.

2.2.1. Without PE Based STATCOM In this mode of operation the STATCOM compensator is not used in the system under study. In this way the system is now without having any power electronics based device. This is the case of conventional wind power generation system. To assess the performance of this system the pu voltage at 33 kV bus-1 and bus2 are measured. Fig. 4 shows the pu voltage measured at 33 kV bus-1 and bus2. From this Fig.4 it seen that the voltage at 33 kV bus1 is below 0.94 pu. Where as the voltage at 33 kV bus2 is 0.9 pu. As these voltages are below 0.95 pu the system is having under voltage.

2.2 PE Based STATCOM Compensator The Simulink [4] model of a test system employed in this study is shown in Fig.3. The network consists of a 132 kV, 50 Hz, grid supply point, feeding a 33 kV distribution system through 132/33 kV, 62.5 MVA step down transformer. There are two loads in the system; one load of 50 MW, 0.9 pf (lag) and another load of 6 MW, 0.9 pf (lag) at 50 kM from the transformer. The 33 kV, 50 kM long line is modeled as line. A 9 MW wind farm consisting of six 1.5 MW wind turbines is to be connected to the 33 kV distribution network at 6 MW

Fig. 4. Voltages at 33 kV Bus-1 and Bus-2 without STATCOM

2.2.2. With PE Based STATCOM In this mode of operation the STATCOM compensator is used in the system under study. In this way the system is now having power electronics based device. So that, the role of the power electronics in the conventional wind power

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Fig.6 shows the schematic representation of DFIG. In which the stator is directly connected to the grid while the rotor winding is connected via slip rings to back-to-back converter. The back-to-back converter is designed so that the IG can operate in a limited variable speed range. The gear-

Fig. 5. Voltages at 33 kV Bus-1 and Bus-2 With STATCOM

generation system can be highlighted. To assess the performance of this system with STATCOM the pu voltage at 33 kV bus-1 and bus2 are measured. Fig. 5 shows the pu voltage measured at 33 kV bus-1 and bus2. From this Fig. 5 it seen that the voltage at 33 kV bus1 is improved to 0.95 pu. Where as the voltage at 33 kV bus2 is raised beyond that at 33 kV bus1 and is at 0.975 pu. From the comparison of voltages measured at 33 kV bus 1 and 2, during the operation of the system without and with PE based STATCOM, it is seen that, the use of STATCOM has significantly improved the voltage profile of the system. From this simple example it is illustrated that PE based devices play vital role in the development of wind power generation systems.
Fig. 6. Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG)

2.3 Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) The wind turbines are composed of an aerodynamic rotor, a mechanical transmission system, an electrical generator, a control system, limited reactive power compensation and a step-up transformer. The conventional wind turbine is even at the present time, the most common type of wind turbine installed. The conventional wind turbine is connected directly to the grid and the generator is synchronized to the network. This technology has been named fixed rotational speed wind turbine because the induction generator allows small mechanical speed variations [6]. The main power system problems from this wind turbine technology come from the lack of control on the active and reactive powers. The active and reactive power control is very important to keep the frequency and voltage stable within limits. Lack of reactive power can lead to voltage problems and no control in the active power can cause frequency deviations. Therefore, variable speed wind power generation systems are developed to overcome above disadvantages of fixed speed systems. In variable speed systems wind turbine the generator is controlled by PE equipment. There are several reasons for using variable speed operation of wind turbines; among those are possibilities to reduce stresses of the mechanical structure, acoustic noise reduction and the possibility to control active and reactive power. Most of the major wind turbine manufactures in the world are developing new larger wind turbines in the range of 3 to 6 MW ratings. These large wind turbines are mainly based on variable speed operation with pitch control using a DFIG. The major advantage of the DFIG, which has made it popular, is that the power electronic equipment only has to handle a fraction (20 to 30 %) of the total system power.

box ratio is set so that the nominal speed of the IG corresponds to the middle value of the rotor speed range of the wind turbine. This is done in order to minimize the size of the back-to-back converter, which will vary with the rotor speed range. With this back-to-back converter it is possible to control the speed (or the torque) and also the reactive power on the stator side of the IG. All new wind power based generation systems installed throughout the world use DFIG. However, wind power system with DFIG is still in research and development stage and mainly, the research and developments in the field of PE govern this research and development activities of DFIG.

SOLAR-PV

3.1 Introduction Solar energy is the most readily available and free source of energy since prehistoric times. It is estimated that solar energy equivalent to over 15,000 times the world's annual commercial energy consumption reaches the earth every year. India receives solar energy in the region of 5 to 7 kWh/m2 for 300 to 330 days in a year. This energy is sufficient to set up 20 MW solar power plant per square kilometre land area. Solar energy can be utilized through two different routes, as solar thermal route and solar electric or Solar-PV routes. Solar thermal route uses the sun's heat to produce hot water or air, cook food, drying materials etc. Solar-PV uses sun's heat to produce electricity for lighting home and building, running motors, pumps, electric appliances, and lighting. Solar-PV systems are ideally suited for distributed resource applications. Solar-PV systems produce DC electricity when sunlight shines on the Solar-PV array, without any emissions. The DC electricity produced by Solar-PV is used for battery charging through DC-to-DC converter. The DC power from the battery is converted to AC power with an inverter and can be used to power loacal loads or fed back to the utility. The Solar-PV application can be grouped depending upon the schemes of interaction with utility grid: grid connected, stand alone, and hybrid [7].

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To illustrate the role of PE in the research and development of Solar-PV systems, stand alone and hybrid systems are presented in this paper.

3.2 Stand Alone Solar-PV System The stand alone Solar-PV system consists of a PV generator (cell, module, array), energy storage devices (such as batteries), DC-to-DC converter, DC-to-AC converter (inverter).

Fig. 8. Block Diagram of a Stand Alone Wind-Solar Hybrid System

Fig. 7. Block Diagram of a Stand Alone Solar-PV System

Fig.7 shows the block diagram of a typical stand alone Solar-PV system. As per the definition, stand alone Solar-PV involves no interaction with utility grid. A Solar-PV panels contails many arrays. Each array is composed of several modules, whereas each module is composed of several solar cells. The battery bank stores energy when the power supplied by the Solar-PV modules exceed load demand and releases it back when Solar-PV supply is insufficient. The load for Solar-PV stand alone system can be a static load (e.g. lighting load) or a dynamic load (e.g. motor load). The power conditioning at the various stages is done by PE based converters and inverters. Therefore, the role of PE based converter and inverter is crucial in the stand alone Solar-PV system. Due to recent developments in the PE, there are significant impacts on the research and development of economic and efficient stand alone Solar-PV systems.

installations of hybrid systems uses PE based converters (AC-to-DC and DC-to-DC converter), inverter (DC-to-AC converter), battery bank and microcontrollers The optimization of the energy extraction is accomplished by using microcontrollers: a control system to the output of the PV solar panels, known as Maximum Power Point Tracker, and an Electronic Regulator for the wind turbines. Battery bank, along with a charge controller to prevent over charging, is used for the electric energy storage. An inverter is required to convert energy from DC to AC and supply it to the load. Due to the recent developments in the field PE, nowadays wind-solar hybrid systems are becoming more and more economical and efficient. Hence are very popular, especially at the places where grid supply is not available, e.g. remote and inaccessible places. Also, large size wind-solar hybrid systems are used for grid connections.

CONCLUSIONS

3.2 Hybrid System Solar-PV panels or small wind turbines depend on climatic conditions to operate and produce electrical energy. Thus, when operating alone they are poor power sources. Systems that merge both the sources, wind and Sun, are more effective in electric energy production. Thses solutions are called hybrid systems. They can supply stand alone systems (isolated electric systems that are not connected to the power grid) or grid connected systems (systems connected to the power grid). Even with hybrid systems there are periods of time when nither of the sources produces energy [8]. In stand alone systems energy storage is required to overcome this situation and provide energy during such periods. A hybrid system combines a small wind turbine and Solar-PV. Their outputs are optimized by PE based power controllers. The extracted energy is used to charge a battery bank or to supply energy to an inverter. The inverter is connected to the load.
Fig.8 shows the block diagram of a Wind- Solar stand alone hybrid system. As seen from the fig.8, nowadays the

This paper illustrated and highlighted the role of PE in the research and development of renewable energy systems. The PE plays crucial role of conversion and control electrical power. Therefore, PE based power converters are also widely used in renewable energy systems. This papers dealt only with the wind and solar-PV systems as they are the most promising renewable energy sources for generation of electricity. To illustrate and highlight the role of PE in research and development of renewable energy systems using wind and Solar-PV, two cases of each type are presented in this paper. Based on which, it can be concluded that PE plays vital role in the research and development of renewable energy systems, especially, wind and solar-PV systems.

Acknowledgments This work was performed at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad (India). Author gratefully acknowledges the kind permission, advices and contributions of Prof. Dr. W. Z. Gandhare (Principal) and Prof. Ms. Archana Thosar (Assistant Professor and Head of the Electrical Engineering Department).

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