Grid Voltage Regulation Utilizing Storage

Batteries in PV Solar Wind Plant based

Distributed Generation System
V. Khadkikar, Member, IEEE, Rajiv K. Varma, Member, IEEE and Ravi Seethapathy, Senior Member,
IEEE

daylight hours are less. On the other hand, the power

AbstractIn this paper, a novel night-time application of a
photovoltaic (PV) solar power farm bidirectional inverter as a
battery charger, is presented. It is shown that a combination of
PV solar farm and storage batteries can be advantageous in a
distribution system having wind farm in close vicinity to the solar
farm. Under such a condition, the PV solar farm inverter can
regulate the grid voltage (if allowed by the code) by charging/
discharging the batteries as well as provide better asset
utilization and return on investments. The PV solar farm
inverter is operated as a three-phase fully controlled rectifier to
charge the batteries which draws sinusoidal currents at unity
power factor operation. MATLAB/SIMULINK based simulation
results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed
indirect grid voltage regulation utilizing the PV solar farm and
storage batteries.
Index Terms Battery storage, converter/inverter,
photovoltaic (PV) system, solar power, voltage regulation, wind
power.
I. INTRODUCTION
generation from wind plants is generally more during night-
times due to higher wind speeds.
In recent years, as the sizes of wind and solar plants are
increasing in distribution systems, efforts are being made to
improve the reliability of these systems. One of the attractive
solutions is to incorporate storage batteries with these DG
systems such that when excess power is produced, it can be
stored and delivered during peak hours when required [1-2].
Fig. 1 (a) shows a system configuration for a directly coupled
wind turbine system with battery storage facility [3-4]. The
directly coupled wind turbine system however requires an
additional bidirectional converter to charge/discharge the
batteries. Fig. 1(b) shows the system configuration of a
converter inverter based wind energy system with storage
battery directly integrated on DC side of the converter [3], [5].
This topology has advantage as the additional generated power
can be directly stored and delivered whenever required by
utilizing the grid side inverter.

A S the penetration level of the renewable energy resources

(such as wind, solar, fuel cells, etc) is increasing,
dependence on these resources to support load demand in
modern power distribution system is also growing. However,
due to the intermittent nature of wind and solar resources, the
reliability of distributed generation (DG) is a major concern. A
backup battery, if integrated with these resources, may help to
store the excess energy produced by them and deliver it
whenever needed.
A photovoltaic (PV) solar farm produces power during the
day-time. However, it generates close to rated maximum (a)
power only during part of the day-time (late morning to late
afternoon/early evening) hours. The power generation
capacity of a solar farm also depends on the weather and the
season, for example, during cloudy days the power output
reduces significantly and in non-tropical country winters the

Financial support from Ontario Centres of Excellence, Centre of Energy, is

gratefully acknowledged. (b)
V. Khadkikar and Rajiv K. Varma are with the Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department, The University of Western Ontario, London,
Ontario, Canada (e-mails: vkhadkik@uwo.ca, rkvarma@uwo.ca). Fig.1. Wind energy systems with battery storage.
Ravi Seethapathy is with Hydro One Networks Inc., Toronto, Ontario,
Canada (e-mail: ravi.seethapathy@hydroone.com).

2009 IEEE Electrical Power & Energy Conference

978-1-4244-4509-7/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE
 Similar to the wind energy system, storage batteries can Stored battery energy can be utilized for peak
also be incorporated in solar farms. In case of solar farms the shaving or as an emergency backup
full capacity of bidirectional inverter especially during night
Improved PV solar power dispatchability and PV
can be utilized as a battery charger [6-9]. This paper present a
output smoothing.
novel approach for a solar wind plant based DG system in
which the bidirectional solar farm inverter is utilized to Increased DG and Distribution system reliability.
charge/discharge the batteries and thus regulate the feeder Possibility of utilizing the system configuration as
voltage indirectly by extracting excess power generation by uninterruptible power source (UPS) when used
wind farm or by supporting load active power peak demand captive (behind the meter).
when output from PV solar system is not at its rated
maximum.
The paper is arranged as follows: section-II describes the
utilization of PV solar farm as a battery charger; section-III
discusses the proposed utilization of a PV solar farm
combined with storage batteries to regulate the PCC voltage;
in section-IV simulation results are given to validate the
proposed utilization of a PV solar farm; and section-V outlines
conclusive remarks of this research work.

II. PV SOLAR FARM AS BATTERY CHARGER

A typical PV solar farm is basically inactive during night-
time and the bidirectional inverter used to deliver the PV DC
power as three-phase AC power to the grid, remains unutilized
as well. Fig. 2 shows the possible operational modes of the
solar farm. The point at which the solar farm is connected to (a)
the grid is called the point of common coupling (PCC). In Fig.
2, vS and iS represents the voltage and current at the secondary
of the distribution transformer; vPCC and vL denote voltages at
PCC and load terminal respectively; and iPV is the current
delivered by the PV solar panels. AC current drawn/delivered
by the solar farm inverter and the DC current flowing through
the storage battery are represented by iSF and iBatt, respectively.
Fig. 2 (a) shows the block diagram representation of
traditional utilization of a PV solar farm. The PV solar farm in
this case supplies power to the main grid during the day-time
(remaining unutilized during the night). Fig. 2 (b) shows a
system configuration to utilize the solar farm inverter as a
battery charger [6-9]. In this case, a storage battery is
connected on DC side of the solar farm inverter. Switch S1
(b)
in Fig. 2 (b) is utilized to disconnect the PV solar panels
especially during night-time and to charge the storage batteries Fig. 2. Utilization of PV solar farm bidirectional inverter: (a) Normal
from the main grid. In some cases, the battery charging operation during day-time to inject real power and (b) Solar farm inverter as
battery charger system configuration.
process can be incorporated in the maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) algorithm [10-11]. An additional DC to DC
III. PROPOSED UTILIZATION OF COMBINED SOLAR FARM AND
converter, such as a buck/boost converter may be required to
STORAGE BATTERY SYSTEM TO REGULATE PCC VOLTAGE
enhance the battery charging/discharging operation. An
automatic mechanism or control loop may also be essential to If the power generated by a DG is more than load demand
avoid excessive overcharging of the batteries and low battery connected downstream of the PCC, the excess power flows
voltage condition during discharging process. back towards the main grid. A substantial amount of this
The advantages offered by the consideration of a battery or reverse power flow may cause voltage to rise on the
sets of batteries on the DC side of the PV solar farm inverter distribution feeder. The voltage rise due to reverse power flow
are highlighted below: is one of the major concerns in any DG system
(wind/solar/other) as it may cause the distribution feeder
Better utilization of solar farm inverter asset
voltage to rise more than the allowable limit (typical 5%)
24/7/365 with multiple value streams i.e. as solar specified by the utility standards [12-15].
PV generator, energy storage and voltage regulator
Fig. 3. Block diagram representation of proposed utilization of solar farm during night time.
Since wind velocity is generally higher during the night-
times, a wind plant may produce more power causing
significant amount of reverse power to flow towards main
grid. Furthermore, during the night-time the condition worsens
as the load on the system is generally lower as compared to
the day time levels. On the other hand, it may be noted that
solar farms do not produce any real power and remain
unutilized during the night-time.
It is quite likely in the near future that wind and solar farms
may be located on the same distribution feeder. This
complementary operational condition of wind farm producing
excessive power while solar farm remaining in idle condition,
especially during the night-time, can be utilized to enhance the
overall system performance by using the solar farm inverter to
perform additional tasks. In this paper, this approach is
utilized to regulate the feeder voltage. The concept is to
exchange (store/deliver) the real power from the feeder by
incorporating storage batteries on the DC side of the solar
farm inverter. In the future as more AC-DC-AC converter-
inverter based wind plants are employed, such battery systems
can be incorporated in wind plants (to store excess solar/other
power)
Fig. 3 shows the block diagram representation of the
proposed system operational configuration. The distribution
system consists of PV solar and wind farms connected on the
same feeder. Several rechargeable batteries are connected to
DC side of the solar farm inverter. Switches S1 and S2 are
utilized to select one or multiple operational modes. The
bidirectional inverter of the solar farm is operated as fully
controlled active rectifier to charge the batteries at unity
power factor operation. Further, with adequate control, the
batteries can be charged by drawing constant charging current
to extract power at fixed rate or variable charging current for
rapid charging to extract power at different rates if the power
generation from wind farm increases suddenly.
The operational modes of proposed utilization of solar farm
are explained below:
(i) The voltage and flow of power at PCC is monitored.
During night-time, if the PCC voltage is observed to
increase beyond a certain level, for example 1.025 pu, or a
significant amount of reverse power flow is detected, the
battery charging loop is activated. Part of the wind
generated real power (PWF) is extracted and utilized to
charge the batteries such that the voltage at PCC will be
regulated. Several batteries can be charged simultaneously
if very high amount of reverse power flow causing
significant voltage rise at PCC is noticed.
(ii) During the day-time, this stored energy in the batteries is
delivered back to the PCC. For example, during early
morning hours or late afternoon hours when the power
generated from PV solar farm is not at its peak, the battery
will be connected in parallel with solar farm generated
output. Thus the PV solar farm and storage battery will
simultaneously support the load power demand.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
To validate the concept presented in the paper, MATLAB/
SIMULINK based simulation study is carried out. A
SIMULINK model is developed for the system discussed in
Fig. 3. The length of line L1, L2 and L3 are: 5 km, 1 km and
0.5 km, respectively. The impedance of each of the line is:
0.055 + j0.0395 (positive sequence value) and 0.1763 + j1.029
(zero-sequence value).The simulation results are given in Figs.
4 to 7.
 (a)
(b)
Fig. 4 System feeder voltage control using PV solar farm inverter and storage
battery (during battery charging).
Fig. 5 PV solar farm inverter current and grid current profiles during battery
charging.
Fig. 4 shows the simulation results when wind farm
generates a 30 kW active power (PWF). The load on the system
is considered as 20 kW (PL). Till time t=1.25 sec, the solar
farm inverter is not controlled to charge the batteries.
Therefore, as noticed from Fig. 4 (a), 10 kW power flows
towards the main grid (PS). The allowable variation in feeder
voltage is considered as 0.05 pu. Due to the reverse power
flow, the voltage at load end (VL) and PCC (VPCC) is noticed to
exceed the specified limit, as 1.073 pu and 1.061 pu,
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6 System feeder voltage control using PV solar farm inverter and storage
battery (during battery discharging).
Fig. 7 PV solar farm inverter and grid current profiles during battery
discharging.
respectively [Fig. 4 (b)]. At time t=1.25 sec, the solar farm
inverter is controlled as battery charger to charge sets of
batteries. Initially a single battery is charged to 2.5 kW (PBatt).
This reduces the amount of reverse power flowing towards
main grid from 10 kW to 7.5 kW [Fig. 4 (a), after time
1.25sec]. As noticed from the Fig. 4 (b), this charging causes
the load and PCC voltages to reduce to 1.061 pu and 1.052 pu,
respectively. However, these voltages are not within the
specified limits. Therefore, at time t=1.5 sec, second battery is
put on charging and thus extracting a total of 5 kW active
power from the PCC (PSF). This restores the voltage at load
and PCC buses to 1.044 pu and 1.034 pu, respectively. Fig. 5
shows the profile of current drawn by the solar farm inverter
(iSF) to charge the batteries. As noticed, the solar farm inverter
draws sinusoidal current at unity power factor with respect to
the PCC voltage. The solar farm inverter current is in-phase
with the PCC voltage indicating that active power is being
consumed by the batteries. The profile of current flowing
towards the grid (iS) is also shown in the Fig. 5.
Fig. 6 shows the simulation results when the stored battery
energy is delivered to the network. In this case the generation
from the wind farm is reduced to 10 kW while keeping the
identical load of 20 kW. Before time t=1.25, the batteries are
not connected to the system. Under such a condition, as
viewed from Fig. 6 (b), the load and PCC voltages are noticed
as 0.944 pu and 0.95 pu, respectively. Due to reduced voltage
at load terminal the load draws 17.7 kW power [Fig. 6 (a)].
The wind farm supports 10.6 kW power to the load while
remaining power is supplied by the main grid.
At time t=1.25 sec, first battery (2.5 kW) is connected to
the system. At this point it is assumed that the PV solar farm
does not produce any real power. As noticed from Fig. 6 (a),
after time 1.25 sec, the solar farm inverter delivers 2.5 kW
power to PCC and this power is provided from the stored
battery energy. This reduces the amount of power delivered
from the main grid to 5.35 kW. Due to this operation, the
voltages at PCC and load terminals improve to 0.965 pu and
0.958 pu, respectively.
At time t=1.5 sec, the second battery is also connected to
the system such that total 5 kW of active power is supplied
from the storage battery and solar farm inverter combination.
This further improves the PCC and load voltages to 0.979 pu
and 0.972 pu, respectively. The PV solar farm with battery
system supports the 5 kW power to the load while remaining
power is drawn from the main grid. The profile of currents
delivered by the solar farm inverter (iSF) during battery
discharge process is shown in Fig. 7. As noticed, the solar
farm inverter delivers the stored battery power to the main
grid at unity power factor. This is indicated by the solar farm
inverter current being out of phase with the PCC voltage.
V. CONCLUSION
A PV solar and wind plant based distributed generation
system with battery storage is studied in this paper. The
bidirectional inverter of PV solar farm is utilized as a battery
charger especially during the night-time to charge the
batteries. A new concept of indirect feeder voltage control is
presented in which the voltage rise (due to a substantial
amount of reverse power flow from the wind farm) is
controlled by utilizing the solar farm inverter to charge the
batteries. The solar farm inverter is operated as a three-phase
controlled rectifier which draws sinusoidal currents at unity
power factor operation. MATLAB/SIMULINK based
simulation results confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of
the proposed approach to regulate the feeder voltage by
exchanging real power through the storage batteries.
In future work, the proposed approach will be expanded for
a medium voltage large-scale PV solar wind power based
distribution system.
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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Vinod Khadkikar (S06-M09) was born in
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, in 1978. He
received his B.E. degree in electrical engineering
from the Government College of Engineering, Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University,
Aurangabad, in 2000, the M. Tech. degree in
power electronics from the Indian Institute of
Technology (I.I.T.), New Delhi, India, in 2002 and
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
cole de Technologie Suprieure, Montral, QC,
Canada, in 2008.
He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON,
Canada. His research interests include applications of power electronics in
distribution systems, power quality enhancement, active power filters,
applications of power electronics in renewable energy resources and grid
interconnection issues.

Rajiv K. Varma (Member 1996) obtained

B.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT), Kanpur, India, in 1980 and 1988,
respectively. He is currently an Associate
Professor at the University of Western Ontario
(UWO), Canada. Prior to this position, he was a
faculty member in the Electrical Engineering
Department at IIT Kanpur, India, from 1989-
2001. While in India, he was awarded the
Government of India BOYSCAST Young
Scientist Fellowship in 1992-93 to conduct
research on Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) at the University of
Western Ontario (UWO). He also received the Fulbright grant of the U.S.
Educational Foundation in India, to conduct research in FACTS at Bonneville
Power Administration (B.P.A.), Portland, Oregon, USA, during May-Aug.
1998. He is the Chair of IEEE Working Group on "FACTS and HVDC
Bibliography" and is active on a number of other IEEE working groups. He
has received several Teaching Excellence awards both at the Faculty of
Engineering and University level at UWO. His research interests include
FACTS, power systems stability, and grid integration of wind and
photovoltaic solar power systems.

Ravi Seethapathy (SMIEEE, P.Eng, MBA) is

Manager Systems Innovation & Advance Grid
Development in the Asset Management Division
at Hydro One, a large electric T&D utility in
Ontario. His accountability includes RD&D in
advanced systems to enable the future grid,
integrate distributed renewable energy sources,
and prescribe an integrated roadmap to achieving
this. He sits on several international T&D
committees such as IEEE/CIGRE/others. He has a
B.Tech (Hons) from IIT Kharagpur, an M.Eng
degree from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Schulich School
of Business, York University.