Custom Power Interfaces for Renewable Energy Sources

Interface converters for renewable energy sources can be regarded as custom power devices. Thus they can be designed and operated so as to improve power quality at their connecting locations. This paper presents examples of converter designs based on p-q theory for different applications. Modeling, simulations and experimental results are given for converter prototypes operating either as active power filter (APF) or static compensator (STATCOM), while transferring real power to the utility grid. Compensation of harmonic distortions, power factor control, reactive support and voltage control are achieved with the proposed circuits.