IEEE Electrification - June 2021 - 54

System Description
A 10-kW PV solar farm is located on Confederation Street in
the utility system of Bluewater Power Distribution Corporation,
Sarnia, as shown in Figure 5. The nighttime view of the
solar panels is depicted in Figure 6. The PV-STATCOM is
installed in the large cabin, whereas the critical induction
motor, rated 5 hp, is located in the smaller cabin, shown in
Figure 5. The inside view of the cabin housing the PV-STATCOM
with its controls and measurement circuits is presented
in Figure 7. The inside view of the cabin containing the
critical motor is portrayed in Figure 8.
The single line diagram of the study system is depicted
in Figure 9. Solar power is generated by a commercial
inverter rated 10 kW, 600 V ac, and 475 V dc, operating at
unity power factor. Switches S2
is used to operate the tracking system of the
and S4 are used to isolate
the existing PV inverter from the circuit. A 3-hp induction
motor M2
solar panels.
For demonstration of PV-STATCOM technology, certain
modifications are made on the existing PV solar farm.
Switch S6
is used to disconnect the existing commercial
10-kW inverter and connect the PV-STATCOM. The PVSTATCOM
consists of a three-phase two-level 10-kVA
inverter, with its controller developed in dSPACE Control
Suite. As the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) voltage
of the solar panel is 280 V, a 140/208-V transformer is
additionally installed to connect the PV-STATCOM inverter
output to the 208/600-V utility transformer located at the
site. The inductor L1
is used to simulate different system
short circuit ratios. A variable inductor L2 is used to vary
the effective distance between the PV solar farm and critical
induction motor. A large 10-kvar, 3-kW inductive load is
used to create the large disturbance at the motor terminal
using switch
Figure 5. The 10-kW solar PV system demonstration site.
S .7 For nighttime PV-STATCOM operation,
the PV panels are disconnected from PV-STATCOM inverter
using the switch
S .6 A simplified equivalent circuit of
the study system is illustrated in Figure 10. The impact of
large load switching on the operation of the critical induction
motor is studied with a 10-kW solar inverter using
conventional control and the same inverter operated as
PV-STATCOM.
PV-STATCOM Control System
The overall control system of PV-STATCOM comprises
conventional controllers used for PV inverters (that is,
phase-locked loop, maximum power point tracking control,
inner loop inverter current controllers, gate pulse generation
using pulse width modulation, and so on) and
novel controllers for implementing the PV-STATCOM functionality
during night and day.
Figure 6. A nighttime view of the solar panels.
Figure 7. A PV-STATCOM (circled in red) inside the inverter cabin of a
10-kW PV solar system.
54
IEEE Electrification Magazine / JUNE 2021
Figure 8. A 5-hp critical induction motor.
IEEE Electrification - June 2021

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