Design and Performance Analysis of Three-Phase Solar PV Integrated UPQC

This paper deals with the design and performance analysis of a three-phase single stage solar photovoltaic integrated unified power quality conditioner (PV-UPQC). The PV-UPQC consists of a shunt and series-connected voltage compensators connected back-to-back with common dc-link. The shunt compensator performs the dual function of extracting power from PV array apart from compensating for load current harmonics. An improved synchronous reference frame control based on moving average filter is used for extraction of load active current component for improved performance of the PV-UPQC. The series compensator compensates for the grid side power quality problems such as grid voltage sags/swells. The compensator injects voltage in-phase/out of phase with point of common coupling (PCC) voltage during sag and swell conditions, respectively. The proposed system combines both the benefits of clean energy generation along with improving power quality. The steady state and dynamic performance of the system are evaluated by simulating in MATLAB-Simulink under a nonlinear load. The system performance is then verified using a scaled down laboratory prototype under a number of disturbances such as load unbalancing, PCC voltage sags/swells, and irradiation variation.