Active Distribution Networks Laboratory: A Case of Experiments in Power Quality

The advance of power electric systems and technological progress in recent years dedicated on the development of active distribution networks have brought several technical challenges related to the power quality. The existence of these challenges requires the implementation of research platforms and the development of technologies that allow their study. This paper presents a laboratory for the research and teaching of power quality disturbance in active distribution networks, which is addressed as an educational tool for power quality concepts. This work presents a series of experiments that allow electrical and electronics engineering students actual testing of the concepts reviewed in theoretical classes. The experiments are summarized in the study of the power quality classical disturbances, such as voltage regulation and harmonic distortion in distribution networks by three operating scenarios. The results obtained show that the integration of distributed generators for voltage support presented an improved of voltage profile by 4 %, but also there was an increase of voltage and current harmonic distortion by 20% and 60% respectively. Otherwise, the implementation of natural filters presented a reduction in voltage and current harmonic distortion by 15% and 45% respectively. The above shown that these experiments allow teaching to the engineering students, conclusions that are well known in the technical literature of the power quality.