Control of Grid Fed PV Generation Using Infinite Impulse Response Peak Filter in Distribution Network

An upsurge in the integration of renewable sources to the utility grid has resulted into escalating concerns regarding power quality (PQ) improvement. In order to provide efficient operation under weak grid conditions, the necessity of a competent control technique is dominant. Consequently, the implementation of an infinite impulse response (IIR) peak filter is used here for harmonics mitigation, power factor correction, and alleviating other PQ issues by providing distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) capabilities. In addition, this control technique also works during conditions when solar photovoltaic (PV) power is not procurable. During day, the requirement of load is fed from the solar PV array and the stored grid power. On the other hand, at night when the power from solar PV array is unavailable, the requirements of load are fulfilled from the grid and DSTATCOM operation ensures power quality improvement. In order to validate this system, it is maintained according to the IEEE-519 standard. The considered weak grid conditions include load unbalancing, intermittent solar insolation, voltage sag, voltage swell, voltage distortion, and voltage unbalance conditions. The benefits of IIR peak filter include adaptive computation during filtering, thereby alleviating the computational complexity. Moreover, less memory space is required during execution guaranteeing fast performance during weak grid conditions. Simulated results are utilized to depict the behavior of the system during abnormal grid conditions. Moreover, its comparative performance with the existing control techniques, is also presented. For further substantiation and in order to observe reliable operation, a laboratory prototype is developed and tested during weak grid conditions such as voltage distortion, voltage unbalance, voltage sag, voltage swell, and load unbalancing.