Power Quality Consideration for Off-Grid Renewable Energy Systems

摘要

Necessity of electricity access in remote area is the main reason for expanding decentralized energy system such as stand-alone power systems. The best electrical power supply must provide a constant magnitude and frequency voltage. Therefore, good power quality is an important factor for the reliable operation of electrical loads in a power system. However, the current drawn by most of electronic devices and non-linear loads are non-sinusoidal, which can result in a poor power quality, especially in off-grid power systems. Poor power quality is characterized by electrical disturbances such as transients, sags, swells, harmonics and even interruptions in the power supply. Off-grid power systems worldwide often struggle with system failures and equipment damage due to poor power quality. In this paper, MAT- LAB/Simulink is used to model and analyses power quality in an off-grid renewable energy system. The results show high voltage transient when the inductive loads were switched OFF. The voltage and current harmonics are also determined and compared for various types of loads.