Rule-Based Power Management and Quality Enhancement in a Standalone Microgrid

The unbalanced and nonlinear nature of AC loads, deteriorates the utilization factor of electrical equipments. Integration of fluctuating renewable energy sources further escalates the challenge of meeting variable loads, making storage elements a necessity, for exploiting the renewable source at its full potential. This paper presents a power management scheme for a standalone microgrid, consisting of a solar photovoltaic (PV) array, battery storage (BS), and diesel generator (DG), feeding nonlinear loads. The control aims at maintaining an uninterrupted power to the loads, maximizing the energy harnessed from renewable source, regulating the state of charge (SOC) of BS for a healthy life, and keeping the AC source currents balanced in case of unbalanced loading. Furthermore, the operation of DG is maintained in fuel economy zone (FEZ) at all times for enhanced fuel efficiency. Implementation of the control on hardware prototype, validates its efficacy under various operating conditions.