Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11

Voltage control of Utility lines The DVR

1.

Introduction

Power systems have non-zero impedances, so every increase in current causes a corresponding
reduction in voltage. Usually, these reductions are small enough that the voltage remains within
normal tolerances. But when there is a large increase in current, or when the system impedance is
high, the voltage can drop significantly. Voltage sags are the most common power disturbance. At a
typical industrial site, it is not unusual to see several sags per year at the service entrance, and far
more at equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the utility; however, in most cases, the
majority of sags are generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the most
common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by refrigerator and air conditioning
motors. Sags do not generally disturb incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors, or heaters.
However, some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage and, therefore, cannot
ride through sags in the supply voltage.
There are various solutions to this problem, examples being: Designing inverter drives for process
equipment to be more tolerant of voltage fluctuations or the installation of voltage correction devices.
For certain end users of sensitive equipment the voltage correction device may be the only
cost-effective option available. It has already been shown that for customers of large loads, from the
high kilowatt to the low megawatt range, a good solution is the installation of a dynamic voltage
restorer (DVR). Fig 1 shows the distribution line with a DVR.

Fig 1.

2.

The typical configuration of the distribution line

SEMI F47 Standard

Figure 2: Required semiconductor equipment voltage sag ride-through capability curve

1

3.

The DVR

As shown in Figure 1, is a circuit proposed for a voltage sag restorer . Under normal power line
operating conditions, the dynamic voltage sag restorer operates in the bypass mode. As long as the
input line voltage remains at more than a selected percentage of the nominal input voltage level, the
static bypass switch remains closed, and power is provided directly from the input line to the load via
the static bypass switch, bypassing the regulator/storage module. During such normal operation, the
storage capacitors in the restorer are each charged to near the peak voltage of the normal input. When
a voltage sag condition is indicated, the static bypass switch is opened, and the restorer cell is
controlled to output a sinusoidal voltage to the load.
Electrical Specifications for DVR
Table 1: Typical Electrical Specifications for 3kVA DVR
Input/Output Voltage
220VAC
Phase
1 phase
Frequency
50Hz
Detection Voltage
-13% of rated input voltage
Response Time
1.84 ms detection
Current
0~12 amps
Output Capacity
1.23.0 kVA
Correction Time
87% to 50% voltage remaining: 2 sec (SR)
cumulative every 20 seconds
cumulative every 20 seconds
Waveform
True sine wave

4.

Circuits of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)

Figure 3: Main circuit of dynamic Voltage restorer (DVR

A. Single square switching-waveform compensation

The compensation of the dipped voltage is assessed firstly using a switching waveform. Fig 4
shows the effect of the voltage dip compensation based on a square wave with an amplitude of V1
and the pulse width is 21. The basic need for the DVR is to give the right voltage to the system,
and the secondary need is to reduce the harmonic content. Fig 6 shows the modification of the
circuit with the inverter directly connected to the load bus. In the diagram, CB is the circuit
breaker, ZL is the line impedance. Although the inverter output is not exactly sinusoidal, the
harmonic could be confined within an acceptable limit. Therefore it is interesting to see the
harmonic content of the proposed method and understand the corresponding variations as compared
to those from a square wave.

Fig 4.

Fig 5:
B.

Illustration of the square wave compensation

The waveforms before and after compensation

Use more notches to compensation the voltage

We can use more notches to do the compensation.

Below is the circuit and waveforms.

Fig 6.

The more notches compensation.

Fig 7.

The circuit using more notches.

Fig 8: The waveforms of using more notches

4

Renewable Energy and Energy storage

I. INTRODUCTION
All the alternative energy sources have power processing stage for power conditioning. The power
conditioning is to provide voltage, current or impedance variations in order provide a matching
between the source and load. The source can be in AC or DC that depends on the alternative energy
source. The power processing units are to convert the AC or DC into suitable voltage for load or
intermediate power stage.
Alternative energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) system and fuel cells are DC source. The
voltage output is not constants and depends on the energy input and the loading. For photovoltaic
systems, the output voltage depends on the illumination level to the cell and loading current.
Therefore a power conditioning unit is usually designed with maximum power-point tracing (MPPT)
in order to optimize the efficiency [1-2]. The fuel cell voltage depends on the input fuel concentration
and rate [3]. It also depends on the loading. A maximum power tracing is also needed.
For the electromagnetic machine types of alternative source, it is usually induction generator,
synchronous generator or switched-reluctance generator. The output voltage is AC. Its voltage is
needed to regulate. Some generators also require PWM driver to move the operating point to certain
frequency range for power optimization and frequency control. The output stage of the generator
requires an AC to DC conversion for voltage regulation or AC-AC voltage conversion for both voltage
and frequency regulation.
The AC-DC converters will also be bridge types of topologies. The
power factor is also needed to be controlled so that the generator will be working at higher power
factor and close to unity in order to optimize the efficiency of the machines.
The power processing stage is high power and the switched mode power conversion topologies will be
using high power converter such as bridge converter. Today, many power conversion circuits are
now available. They can provide bidirectional power flow [4], resonant switching or soft-switching,
and multiple output voltage as well. The grid connected DC-AC power conversion is also very
popular for second stage power conversion which is further processed the intermediate power stage
which is usually a DC to other load. Fig 1 shows the typical connection for the power units. In this
paper, the power conversion unit is discussed. Suitable topology is examined for the use in
Alternative energy sources.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGIES
A.

Battery system

Photovoltaic system can be standalone and supply power to load or can be connected to the grid. The
former requires battery storage which provides immediate energy storage[10]. When solar energy is
not sufficient, the battery which is charged beforehand can be retrieved to the load. The circuit
requires sufficient battery storage and good battery charger is needed. Other energy storage is also
available such as hydrogen energy storage.

Fig 9: PV system with typical power processing

BESS refers to Battery Energy Storage System is a slogan for such energy storage system used in
power utility. There are many topology for BESS and most of them are based on bi-directional
inverter for connect the AC and DC (battery).

B.

Energy storage

Besides the battery storage, the hydrogen storage has been using recently [11]. Fig 10 shows the
schematic. The system is usually combined with the fuel cell. The power from the alternative
energy source is not storage in battery but through electrolyzer and chemical decompose the water into
oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is storage in the compressed high pressure storage tank. The
tank can be transported to other location for energy source. It can also be transported through gas pipe
to other location. The hydrogen is then converted to water through the fuel cell. The best efficiency
of electrolyzer is around 85% [12]. The fuel cell efficiency is around 35% [13]. The best is around
40-50% [14] The combined efficiency is expected to be 30%.
Compared with battery energy storage, the efficiency for input to output power conversion is shown in
Table 1 [15]. It is obvious that the efficiency of the battery storage is higher than the hydrogen energy
storage.
The energy density of a hydrogen tank is high. For low pressure tang, 170 Whr/kg can
be achieved. For some commercial tank, Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage [16] can be achieved
425Whr/kg.

Fig 10: Hydrogen storage system

Type
Lead-acid
Ni-Cad
Ni-iron
NiMH
Li ion based
Nano Titanate

Table 1: Comparison of different batteries

Cell voltage
Density
Efficiency
(V)
(Whr/kg)
(%)
2.1, 2.2
30-40
70-92
1.2
40-60
70-90
1.2
50
65
1.2
30-80
66-95
3.6
160
99
13.8
90
87-95%
6

Supercapacitor is also considered for energy storage. However, the energy density is low. Its typical
energy density is low and around 3-6 Wkr/kg. The voltage is usually low and around 2.7-16.2V.
The capacitance is high and over thousand of Farads. Any voltage or capacitance can be made by
different combinations. They doe not usually for high energy storage [17] and they are used for
assistive energy storage. The dynamic response for the supercapacitors is better than batteries,
therefore they are used in parallel with the battery to improve the dynamic performance. A typical
example is the electric vehicle.

C.

Grid connected system

The energy storage in the battery can be inverted to the grid. This can reduce the storage requirement
of the battery. Some systems use very little or no battery and directly connected to grid. Fig 11
shows the connection of the PV system to a DC bus. The DC bus is connected by a number of PV
panels. Each of which is connected in series or parallel. For each parallel connection, a current
sharing control is needed in order to ensure that no circulation current in the system. The load in the
DC bus can also be shared in a suitable manner so that MPPT of the DC-DC voltage converter can be
achieved. There will also no particular PV panel being overload unnecessary.

Fig 11: Parallel sharing of PV systems

The DC bus link can be inverted to AC for loading or connected to grid. Fig 12 shows the schematic.
The usual output voltage VAC from the inverter is to give 380V or the local mains voltage. Therefore
inverter equation is:
VDC

2 2V AC
M

where M is the modulation index is can be varied from 0.4 to 1.15. Too small M gives poor harmonic
spectrum that is to be avoided. The typical value selected is 0.9. The DC-DC converter is also used as
a buffer to the battery charger. Some battery charger is integrated with the DC-DC converter as a
single unit can be connected directly to the PV.

Fig 12: Grid connected PV system

III. VARIABLE-FREQUENCY TO CONSTANT FREQUENCY (VFCF) CONVERTER
There are a number of generators available for renewable energy such as power derived from wind,
tidal power, biomass, hydro; and some combustion generator from green gas such as hydrogen are all
major electricity generation means. There are a number of methods that the generator can be
conditioning. For examples, some systems use doubly-feed generator [18], synchronous generator
[19] or induction generator [20], switched reluctance generator[21].
Fig 13 shows the popular
schematic of the generator for wind power.

Fig 13: Wind turbine topologies

Some generator produces variable frequency and variable voltage output and in the past a mechanical
system is needed to regulate the output stage in order to produce constant frequency and voltage.
Alternatively a variable frequency-constant frequency converter can be used to reduce the
mechanical system that of course has the advantage of reduction in the bulky system.
The
8

converter also allows the variable frequency operation of the wind turbines in order to keep the ratio
of the rotor speed derived from wind to the inflow wind speed constant to optimize the performance.
There are a number of topologies suitable for the applications. They are AC-DC-AC converter,
matrix converter and cycloconverter.
A. AC-DC-AC converter
Basically the system is based on a cascade connection of a AC-DC and a DC-AC inverter [22]. The
intermediate stage is a DC stage which has some capacitor or even battery for intermediate energy
storage and voltage smoothing. Fig 14 shows a typical schematic. The capacitor CDC or the
battery BDC can also provide a prolonged uninterrupted time in case the input stage fails to supply.
The AC-DC is usually a rectifier or an AC-DC power factor correction rectifier. The DC-AC
inverter is a circuit the same as the Fig 14.

Fig. 14: AC-DC-AC converter system

B. Matrix Converter
Fig 15 shows a typical matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion [23]. The output voltage and
frequency can be varied so that it is a good candidate renewable energy generator. No intermediate
energy storage such as capacitor is needed.

Fig. 15: Matrix converter for AC-AC power conversion

C. Discussion
Both AC-DC-AC converter and the matrix are suitable for the VFCF application. The matrix
converter uses 18 transistors but it does not require capacitors. The AC-DC-AC converter requires
DC link capacitor its switching devices needed are 6, but if the front-end converter AC-DC rectifier
is replaced by active devices, the total transistor needed is 12. The cycloconverter [24] has a less
flexibility on voltage and frequency control and is less popular.

IV. WIND POWER

Fig 16 shows a schematic of a doubly-fed induction generator circuit. The output power Po is related
to Ir in the maximum efficient manner and the efficiency of the generator g is also related to Ir in a
monotonic manner [27]. The characteristic of Ir and Po is a monotonic curve. Therefore Po can be
used estimate Ir. The g can be used to estimate the received rotor power Pr. It can then use to track
the optimum wind speed and hence the rotor shaft speed.

Fig 16: The doubly-fed induction generator circuit

V.

GRID AND RENEWABLE NETWORK.

The distribution network will consists of the connection of a number of energy storage, renewable
source and the load.

REFERENCES
[1] Kuo Y.C.; Liang T.J.; Chen J.F.;, Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion
system, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 2001, pp.594 601.
[2] Solodovnik, E.V.; Shengyi Liu; Dougal, R.A.;Power controller design for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004 pp.1295 1304.
10

[3] Sedghisigarchi, K.; Feliachi, A., Impact of fuel cells on load-frequency control in power distribution systems, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion,
Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2006, pp.250 256.
[4] Cheng K.W.E., Classical Switched-mode and resonant power converters, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chapter 3,
ISBN: 962-367-364-7, Sep 2002, pp. 78-80.
[5] Rodriguez C. ; Amaratunga G. A.J., Analytic Solution to the Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Problem, IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems--I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 54, 2007, (To published).
[6] K.K.Tse, M.T.Ho, H.S.H. Chung, S.Y. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency
modulation, IEEE Trans on Power electronics, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 2002, pp. 980-989.
[7] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input Dc-Dc converter, IEEE
Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 281-286.
[8] K. Kobayashi, H. Matsuo, and Y. Sekine, An excellent operating point tracker of the solar-cell power supply system, IEEE Trans.
Power Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 2, Apr 2006, pp. 495499..
[9] J.A.M.Bleijs and J.A.Gow, Fast maximum power point control of current-fed DC-DC converter for photovoltaic arrays, IEE
Electronics Letters, Jan 2001, Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 5-6.
[10] Masoum, M.A.S.; Badejani, S.M.M.; Fuchs, E.F.;, Microprocessor-controlled new class of optimal battery chargers for
photovoltaic applications, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 99 606
[11] Agbossou, K.; Kolhe, M.; Hamelin, J.; Bose, T.K., Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy
storage as hydrogen, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, , Vol. 19, Issue 3, Sept. 2004, pp.633 640.
[12] Al-Quoc Pham, High efficiency Steam electrolyzer, 2000 DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NRELC/CP-570-28890,
[13] Cheng K.W.E., Sutanto D., Ho Y.L., and Law K.K., Exploring the power conditioning system for fuel cell, IEEE PESC, June 2001,
Vancouver.
[14] PEM fuel cell, 2004 Smithsonian Institution http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/pem/pemmain.htm
[15] Rechargeable battery, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Sep 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
[16] Millennium Cell, Eatontown, N.J., machinedesign.com/ContentItem/58345/ThechargeoftheBatteryBrigade.aspx
[17] Burke, A. F., Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel Cell Vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 95, Issue 4,
April 2007 Page(s):806 - 820
[18] Pena, R.; Clare, J.C.; Asher, G.M.; Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to
variable-speed wind-energy generation, IEE Proceedings-EPA, Vol. 143(3), 1996, pp.231 241.
[19] Karrari, M.; Rosehart, W.; Malik, O.P.;
Comprehensive Control Strategy for a Variable Speed Cage Machine Wind Generation Unit, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
Vol. 20(2), June 2005, pp.415 423.
[20] Blaabjerg, F.; Zhe Chen; Kjaer, S.B.; Power electronics as efficient interface in dispersed power generation systems,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1184 1194.
[21] R.Crdenas, R.Pea, M.Prez, J.Clare, G.Asher and P.Wheeler, Control of a switched reluctance generator for variable-speed
wind energy applications, IEEE Trans Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 4, Dec 2005, pp. 781-791.
[22] Thomas, R.J.; Phadke, A.G.; Pottle, C.;
Operational characteristics of a large wind-farm utility system with a controllable AC/DC/AC interface, IEEE Trans. on Power
Systems, Vol. 3(1), 1988, pp.220 225.
[23] Chang, J.; Wang, A.;, Experimental development and evaluations of VF-input high-frequency AC-AC converter supporting
distributed power generation, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.19, Issue 5, Sept. 2004, pp.1214 1225.
[24] Brown, G.M.; Szabados, B.; Hoolbloom, G.J.; Poloujadoff, M.E.; High-power cycloconverter drive for double-fed induction
motors, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 39, Issue 3, June 1992, pp. 230 240.
[25] H.Li, K.L.Shi, P.G.McLaren, Neural-network-based sensorless maximum wind energy capture with compensated power
coefficient, IEEE Trans, Industry Applications, Vol. 41., No. 6, Nov/Dec 2006, pp. 1548-1556.
[26] S.Morimoto, H.Nakayama, M,Sanada, Y.Takeda, Sensorless output maximum control for variable-speed wind generation system
using IPMSG, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp. 60-67.
[27] S.Bhowmik, R.Spee, J.H.R.Enslin, Perofmance optimization for doybly-fed wind power generation systems, IEEE. Trans. Industry
Applications, Vol. 34, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1999, pp. 949-958.

1.

11