Impact of Automation on Enhancing Energy Quality in Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

Rapid growth in the integration of new consumers into the electricity sector, particularly in the industrial sector, has necessitated better control of the electricity supply and of the users’ op-erating conditions to guarantee an adequate quality of service as well as the unregulated dis-turbances that have been generated in the electrical network that can cause significant failures, breakdowns and interruptions, causing considerable expenses and economic losses. This research examines the characteristics of electrical variations in equipment within a company in the industrial sector, analyzes the impact generated within the electrical system according to the need for operation in manufacturing systems, and proposes a new solution through automation of the regulation elements to maintain an optimal system quality and prevent damage and equipment failures while offering a cost-effective model. The proposed solution is evaluated through a reliable simulation in ETAP (Energy Systems Modeling, Analysis and Optimization) software, which emulates the interaction of control elements and simulates the design of electric flow equipment operation. The results demonstrate an improvement in system performance in the presence of disturbances when two automation schemes are applied as well as the exclusive operation of the capacitor bank, which improves the total system current fluctuations and improves the power factor from 85.83% to 93.42%. Such a scheme also improves the waveform in the main power system; another improvement result is when simultaneously operating the voltage and current filter together with the PV system, further improving the current fluctuations, improving the power factor from 85.83% to 94.81%, achieving better stability and improving the quality of the waveform in the main power grid.