Impact of non-linear loads and renewable generation on a university research building

As modern society electrical energy consumption requirements increase, a growing need for more efficient and lower costs power electronics processing devices is featured. Even though this kind of devices have high efficiency, it creates a problem by injecting harmonic currents. This paper aims to address the harmonic distortion impact caused by non-linear loads and renewable generation on a typical university research building connected at the distribution system level. For this sake, actual data from the Centre of Excellence in Smart Grids (CERIn) featuring Uninterruptible power supply (UPS), Relays, Real Time Digital Power System Simulator (RTDS) and distributed generation (DG) were considered and three occupancy rates were held, low, average and high scenario. The results indicate desktop computers as major contributors to the harmonic losses. For special loads, the UPS 5^th harmonic presents itself as the second greatest influence, while Relays and RTDS have an average participation. These results allow a better understanding and definition of measures to reduce the harmonic impact, cancellation techniques and filtering.