Solar power is considered a very promising source for electric power generation. The abundance of sunlight over a large area of the earth surface gives rise to several applications of photovoltaic systems. Electricity can be generated from sunlight either directly by employing the photovoltaic effect, or by using energy from the sun to heat up a working fluid that can be used to power up electricity generators. These two technologies are widely used today to provide power to either stand-alone loads or for connection to the power system grid. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is a very important consideration that is taken into account when building a new photovoltaic power system. This is needed in order to extract maximum power output from a PV array under varying atmospheric conditions to maximize the return on initial investments. Several techniques have been used to tackle this problem including perturb and observe (P&O), incremental conductance (IncCond) and fuzzy logic based algorithms. Judging between these techniques is based on their speed of locating the maximum power point (MPP) of a PV array under given atmospheric conditions, besides the cost and complexity of implementing them. The P&O and IncCond algorithms have a low implementation complexity but their tracking speed is slow. Fuzzy logic techniques are faster but suffer from high implementation complexity. One of the goals of this thesis is to present an MPPT algorithm implementation that is based on the fractional open circuit voltage method. This technique is easy to implement and offers a fast tracking speed for the MPP of a PV array. It provides an approximation within 4-5% of the maximum power point, which is a tradeoff between the speed and accuracy of operation around the MPP. It offers a speed advantage in grid connected PV systems. The P&O algorithm, which is very common, is difficult to implement under these conditions due to its poor response time. There is also a need for developing control techniques for three phase grid connected PV systems including a method for DC link voltage control that can stabilize the voltage at the inverter input. This area of research is currently growing with the increase in number of PV installations backed up by government incentives in several countries. In addition to the previously mentioned points, this work is intended to be used in further research to replace the representation of PV arrays as a simple DC source when included in power system studies. That is a basic assumption and does not take into consideration the various dynamics caused by changing solar irradiation and surface temperature of the array.

The design and regulation of power equipments which installed in distribution system are based on single direction power flow. When distributed generators (DG) are added into distribution system, it may cause some technical problems such as two-way current, fault capacity and power quality. In general, the utility should make sure that its power system could be operated safely and reliably before integrating DG into the system. If there are no complete measurements for DG, the capacity of DG would be restricted by fault current, short circuit capacity, feeder voltage or other problems. In this research, the focus is on the influence of DG operations in distribution system and the increase of DG integration capacity. The impacts of different combinations of DG generation profiles and control strategies are first analyzed, followed by the use of particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to search for better feeder reconfigurations in order to increase DG integration capacity.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 62 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-48).

Solar power is considered a very promising source for electric power generation. The abundance of sunlight over a large area of the earth surface gives rise to several applications of photovoltaic systems. Electricity can be generated from sunlight either directly by employing the photovoltaic effect, or by using energy from the sun to heat up a working fluid that can be used to power up electricity generators. These two technologies are widely used today to provide power to either stand-alone loads or for connection to the power system grid. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is a very important consideration that is taken into account when building a new photovoltaic power system. This is needed in order to extract maximum power output from a PV array under varying atmospheric conditions to maximize the return on initial investments. Several techniques have been used to tackle this problem including perturb and observe (P&O), incremental conductance (IncCond) and fuzzy logic based algorithms. Judging between these techniques is based on their speed of locating the maximum power point (MPP) of a PV array under given atmospheric conditions, besides the cost and complexity of implementing them. The P&O and IncCond algorithms have a low implementation complexity but their tracking speed is slow. Fuzzy logic techniques are faster but suffer from high implementation complexity. One of the goals of this thesis is to present an MPPT algorithm implementation that is based on the fractional open circuit voltage method. This technique is easy to implement and offers a fast tracking speed for the MPP of a PV array. It provides an approximation within 4-5% of the maximum power point, which is a tradeoff between the speed and accuracy of operation around the MPP. It offers a speed advantage in grid connected PV systems. The P&O algorithm, which is very common, is difficult to implement under these conditions due to its poor response time. There is also a need for developing control techniques for three phase grid connected PV systems including a method for DC link voltage control that can stabilize the voltage at the inverter input. This area of research is currently growing with the increase in number of PV installations backed up by government incentives in several countries. In addition to the previously mentioned points, this work is intended to be used in further research to replace the representation of PV arrays as a simple DC source when included in power system studies. That is a basic assumption and does not take into consideration the various dynamics caused by changing solar irradiation and surface temperature of the array.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 141 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-141).

The research presented in this dissertation primarily focuses on providing analytical frequency-domain equations that use the system and controller parameters to accurately characterize the power conversion harmonics resulting from the deployment of hysteresis current-controlled inverters within the ac network. In addition, the ac and dc harmonic interactions under both ideal system conditions (constant dc excitation and pure sinusoidal ac voltages) and non-ideal system conditions (harmonic terms are added to the dc and ac sources) are derived for the fixed- and variable-band hysteresis current control. The spectral characteristics, such as frequency orders, spectral magnitude and bandwidth, are given in terms of line and control parameters, a development not only useful in analyzing the harmonic output sensitivity to line and controller parameter variations, but also in filter and system design. Various simulation studies compared results obtained from the developed models to those obtained from the Fourier analysis of MATLAB/Simulink output with very good agreement. The developed models proved their reliability and improved numerical efficiency in harmonic studies compared to those performed using time-domain simulations.

This thesis contributes to improve the photovoltaic Distributed Generation (DG) systems by proposing three novel methods to the system. On DC conversion side, a new integrated magnetic structure for interleaved converter and a new method to calculate the eddy current and hysteresis losses in the magnetic core were proposed. On inversion side, A new synchronisation method for grid tie inverters was suggested. The technique is using the Recursive Discrete Fourier Transform (RDFT) to find fundamental in grid waveform. On the DC converter side, the benefits of the new structure is to produce magnetic flux that alternate in the core across both directions of the BH curve. The advantages of alternating magnetic flux are, to increase the Root Mean Square (RMS) value of produced current with respect to core volume that lead to reduce the core size and reducing losses by using high permeability material. Furthermore, the proposed structure led to reduce the number of magnetic components which helped to improve the efficiency. The converter was tested and evaluated were the results show that the topology is able to produce high gain and it shows that the new interleaved structure is efficient. A new method to calculate the eddy current loss was proposed, where the flux waveform in the core was analysed to its original frequency component. Each of the components were utilized individually to find the loss. The effect of changing the duty cycle of the converter was taken into consideration on the total eddy current loss, as it will effect on the total harmonics content in the flux waveform. On the inverter side, due to recent developments combined with the increasing power demand by single phase non-linear loads where voltage spikes, harmonics and DC component were impacted the electric grid quality. These effects can likewise make the synchronisation process a challenge, where filters or Digital Signal processing (DSP) analysers are required to acquire the fundamental component as a consequence to the waveform deformation. A new linear approximation with RDFT is presented in this thesis for grid tie inverters. The new method provides a computation reduction as well as high accuracy in tracking the fundamental frequency in a distorted grid during synchronisation. The method accuracy was proved mathematically and simulated with different input signals. Error in magnitude and frequency measurement were measured, presented and compared with other research in order to verify the proposed method.

The need for a continuous supply of electric power is vital to providing the basic services of modern life. The energy infrastructure that the vast majority of the world depends on, while very reliable, is also very vulnerable. This infrastructure is particularly vulnerable to disruptions caused by natural disasters. Interruptions of electric service can bring an end to virtually all the basic services that people are dependent on. Recent natural disasters have highlighted the vulnerabilities of large, economically developed, regions to disruptions to their supply of electricity. The widespread devastation from the 2011 Japanese Tsunami and Hurricane Irene in North America, have demonstrated both the vulnerability of the contemporary power grids to long term interruption of service and also the potential of microgrids to ride through these interruptions. Microgrids can be used before, during, and after a major natural disaster to supply electricity, after the main grid source has been interrupted. This thesis researches the potential of clean energy microgrids for disaster recovery. Also a model of a proposed residential microgrid for transient analysis is developed. As the world demands more energy at increasingly higher levels of reliability, the role of microgrids is expected to grow aggressively to meet these new requirements. This thesis will look at one potential application for a microgrid in a residential community for the purpose of operating in an independent island mode operation. / Master of Science

In recent years, Distributed Generators (DGs) and energy storage devices have gained more popularity due to growing energy and environmental concerns. Interconnection of DGs and storage devices in an electricity grid impacts its performance under steady state and transient conditions. This research aims at analyzing the impacts of distributed generators and energy storage devices on the transient stability of the grid. Battery and ultra-capacitor technologies have been taken as the two types of storage devices and their electrical characteristics have been modeled using Simulink. Impact of these devices has been analyzed by connecting them to the system by means of suitable power electronic converters. The developed methodology has been evaluated using small test systems in MATLAB/Simulink. Transient stability of the test systems has been assessed for different types and locations of faults as well as for different penetration levels of the DGs, with and without the energy storage devices. Impact on the system transient stability has been analyzed based on transient response of the generator rotor speed deviation, rotor angle and terminal voltage of the DGs. Finally, economic analyses have been carried out for different options of DGs, based on wind, diesel and biomass, along with the energy storage devices. Results indicate that the presence of DGs and storage devices enhances the transient stability of the system in most of the cases.

As distributed generations and renewable energy are becoming the fastest growing segment of the energy industry, the technical issues and environmental impacts have to be studied and understood. The large number of small-scale Microgrid components with their own characteristics is a big challenge for Microgrid modeling, simulation, planning and operation. The major goal of this thesis is to build a library of various Microgrid components. First of all, the thesis is going to present a detailed description of Microgrid models with moderate complexity. Next, it will present the modeling of loads, utility grid and transmission lines. Then, the paper will discuss the distributed generation models that have been developed in Matlab/Simulink including Diesel Engine, Fuel Cell, Micro Gas Turbine, Wind Turbine, Photovoltaic Cell, along with the detailed modeling of short-term storage (Battery, Pumped Hydro Storage, Flywheel, and Supercapacitor). In addition to steady-state study, the thesis will also discuss the hybrid sample systems that are built to investigate their transient responses. To enhance the simulation performance, some improvements on modeling and simulation will be introduced as well. To accommodate the high demand of renewable energy and the environment policy, the planning and operation the of Micro-source generators has been studied using HOMER. Simulation results show a case study of an optimal microgrid configuration on Ontario area in Canada. Sensitivity variables are specified to examine the effect of uncertainties, especially in a long-term planning. Also, demand side management plays an important role in the operation of Microgrid. Based on raw data, case studies are carried out to investigate and validate the demand response methods. Finally, the philosophy for Microgrid protection, especially Time-delay overcurrent protection, will be briefly introduced in both gird-connected and islanding modes. / Master of Science