MITIGATION OF HARMONICS AND REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION IN GRID CONNECTED PV SYSTEM

Abstract

The upsurge in demand of energy has been accentuated by industrial drives system, domestic appliances etc. The drive system and many household/domestic equiments has to its core semiconductor based switches. The very nature of these switches is 'non- linearity', which comes into play between the voltage and current relationship. This distorts the wave-shape of current vis-a-vis the voltage. It is found on using mathemat- ical analysis like Fourier analysis that current not only contains fundamental frequency but also those 'unwanted' frequncies called as harmonics. These harmonics when they

ow through the wires and cables would cause unnecessary heating and associated loss of power. This results in failure of insulation, breakdown of equipments, equipment to be underutilised , electromagnetic interference etc. This gives rise to power quality issues to be addressed. The power quality problem has been a focus area for electrical engineers. To mitigate the problem lters have been devised. These lters are available either passive lters or active lters. Other than cost the active lters nds comparative advantages vis-a-vis passive lters. The dissertation work focuses on the development of a PV fed inverter which could inject the reactive power and meet the load reactive power demand under all irridation condition as well as mitigate the harmonics produced by a combination of loads(non-linear and linear load). Also the simulation investigates whether it is possible to obtain real power from the PV array by not e ecting the reactive power and harmonic mitigation aspect for the loads. Also what will be the win-win situation under all circumstances so that reactive and harmonic mitigation is not compromise.