Enhancement of grid power transmission limits using photovoltaic solar farm as STATCOM (PV-STATCOM)

Photovoltaic (PV) energy is mainly used for producing large amount of power among different types of renewable energies. The efficiency of power transfer can be improved by modeling and control of Photovoltaic systems in a grid connected network. Photovoltaic (PV) solar farm inverter can be transformed into a static synchronous compensator known as SSC or STATCOM for increasing the limits of power transfer in a network. The proposed topology of modeling the Photovoltaic solar plant along with the voltage and damping controllers can be used for increasing grid power transmission limits of the interconnected transmission system. Voltage Source Inverter is the main component of PV power system and STATCOM device. Based on this fact, PV-STATCOM is tested in a grid interconnected solar farm of a Distributed Generation system. Harmonic analysis is performed for a grid connected system with a PV based STATCOM at the centre of the transmission line using the MATLAB/SIMULINK model. This paper presents the effectiveness of PV-STATCOM for increasing the system stability during fault conditions by reducing the value of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).