| With increasing energy consumption rates, the electric power grid is subjected to stress and failures, especially during peak load hours. It is difficult for the existing grid to meet the needs of twenty-first century with constraints involving increased power demand, complexity of the grid, power quality and reliability requirements in the presence of limitations on available sources, generation, transmission and distribution. There is a need for the development of a highly reliable and efficient grid system which allows integration of Renewable Energy (RE) sources. Smart/Micro grid technologies serve as a platform for reliable integration, controlling multiple generation units and supplying consumers as well. This study focuses on integrating variable renewable energy sources (insolation, wind, biomass etc.) with the aid of a Microgrid along with IEEE 14 bus feeder distribution network using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The power output from RE sources namely PV, wind and biomass is fed to a 14 bus distribution network (subsystem) which acts as the grid infrastructure for the whole system. As an integrated energy delivery system, the Microgrid is considered to operate in off-grid mode. In addition, multiple energy conversion operations are reduced using power electronic converters in the proposed Microgrid concept. Three phase symmetrical faults are introduced in the system at various points to study the changes in voltage levels and power outages. A simple economic analysis of the system is undertaken using the well -known software HOMER Pro. Performance of the RE based Microgrid is analyzed in off-grid mode. |
