Energies (Jun 2021)

Fault Ride Through in Grid Integrated Hybrid System Using FACTS Device and Electric Vehicle Charging Station

  • Uthra R.,
  • Suchitra D.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/en14133828
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 13
p. 3828

Abstract

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Adopting eco-friendly solutions is the need of the hour in order to downscale carbon emissions and the fast depletion of fossil fuels. Hybrid energy systems provide one such optimistic sustainable solution for power generation in a grid integrated system as well as for stand-alone applications. With grid integrated systems, there are many grid codes to be maintained such as voltage stability, frequency deviation and Fault Ride Through Capability (FRT). In a hybrid system, the propensity of the PV/Wind system to remain connected at the moment of short electric fault is identified as FRT. This paper elucidates the voltage compensation using an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station or a Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) device depending on the intensity of fault that occurs at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) in grid integrated hybrid systems. When a fault occurs at the PCC, depending on the intensity of the voltage sag either the EV charging station or a FACTS device, namely a Dynamic Voltage Restore (DVR), provides the voltage compensation. The voltage obtained from an EV charging station or DVR is conditioned using power converters and fed to the PCC to even out the discrepancy in the voltage that is effected due to the fault. Even though charges electric vehicles continuously, the EV charging station gives priority to supply voltage for compensation whenever a fault occurs at the grid. If the intensity of voltage sag due to fault is between 0.9 to 0.51 p.u, the EV charging station provides voltage compensation, and for voltage sag between 0.5 to 0.2 p.u, DVR takes over to provide voltage compensation for the continuous sustainability of the grid. The proposed system makes use of an existing source such as an EV charging station as a supplementary device to provide compensation, and also has a backup supplementary device DVR in case of any non-availability of the EV charging station. Thus, the voltage compensation in turn facilitates the parameters such as DC link voltage and the grid voltage to stay within the pertinent limits in the event of a fault at the grid. The system was simulated using MATLAB Simulink and the results were verified.

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