Flexible control strategies using FACTS schemes for motor drives and smart grid applications

Abstract

This research investigates the use of flexible alternating current transmission systems (FACTS) with new renewable energy interface schemes and control strategies, in order to explore renewable energy and energy effcient utilization and voltage stabilization. It explores mechanisms to stabilize integrated renewable energy schemes using new FACTS power filter compensators, which ensure stabilized voltage, limited inrush current conditions and transient voltages, and damped load excursions. DC and AC motors are used in electric vehicle (EV) drives fed from alternative/renewable sources, including tidal, wind, wave, photovoltaic (PV), fuel cell (FC), micro gas turbine as well as hybrid renewable energy source combinations. This research investigates new interface topologies and dynamic fast-acting control strategies for effcient utilization of renewable energy sources such as wind, PV, FC, biogas, and hybrid energy sources. It explores the use of FACTS-based power electronic interface converters including a family of switched power filters/capacitive compensation schemes with error-driven multi-loop, time-descaled control strategies for effcient utilization of DC-AC interface systems with flexible and robust control strategies to ensure maximum energy utilization, voltage stabilization, and improved power factor and power quality for electric vehicles, battery charging stations, and hybrid renewable energy utilization. The main objectives of the thesis are to develop and validate a number of new power electronic switching filter compensator topologies for power generation, electric vehicles, and battery charging to improve power quality, reduce total harmonic distortion, decrease AC and DC side inrush currents, and provide AC and DC side voltage stabilization. The new extended family of FACTS-based switched filter compensators (SFC) and flexible control schemes includes the DC-side green power filter compensators (GPFC), SFC, neutral point switched filter compensators (NP-SFC), and hybrid switched filter compensators (HSFC), which can effectively stabilize DC and AC Bus voltages, by reducing inrush current conditions, transient voltages under hybrid source changes, load excursions, and hence ensuring energy effcient utilization. The research covers renewable AC/DC systems with AC/DC FACTS-based filter capacitor compensation family of extended power electronic devices and converters including GPFC, SFC, NP-SFC, and HSFC schemes, smart grid AC/DC renewable energy schemes with modified dynamic control strategies for electric vehicles, vehicle-to-home (V2H)/vehicle-to-grid (V2G) battery local and utility stations, and hybrid renewable energy PV-FC-battery energy utilization in motor drives, village/island and micro grid renewable/alternative energy utilization. The DC-AC interface schemes for DC and AC EV-drives, V2H/V2G battery chargers and hybrid renewable energy utilization systems with flexible control strategies are digitally simulated and validated using the MATLAB® /Simulink® /SimPowerSystems® environment.