Investigating power quality improvement capabilities of a modular power conditioning system

Power quality issues such as voltage sags/swells, interruptions and harmonics are of increasing concern. In the course of the energy transition the efforts to increase the share of renewable energies in the electricity grid lead to a more and more decentralized power generation impaired by stochastic and non-predictable fluctuations, while at the same time a growth in percentage of electrical loads and sources which are coupled via power converters to the electricity supply can be observed. Both developments result in deterioration of supply and voltage quality and cause system perturbations and stability issues. To improve the supply and voltage quality converter-based Power Conditioning Systems (PCS) are locally installed. In this paper a modular shunt-type PCS and its respective control strategy is proposed to address voltage stability enhancement and harmonics mitigation. By using Matlab/Simulink a simulative investigation is conducted. The modular PCS is evaluated during diverse voltage sag severity with the presence of nonlinear loads, showing improvement capabilities as well as limitations.