CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITY IN DECENTRALISED
DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Definition
Distributed generation (DG) technology is gaining in popularity due to the
ever- increasing demand for energy, the depletion of fossil fuel resources and
a greater emphasis on clean energy.
IEEE defines DG as “generation of electricity by the facilities that
are sufficiently smaller than central generating plants to allow
interconnection at nearly any point in a power system”.
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) defines DG as “Smaller
power sources that can be aggregated to provide power necessary
to meet regular demand.”
Introduction of DG makes it bidirectional as energy can flow from DG as well
as the main utility grid.
This causes numerous complications in regard to:
(i) system voltage profile,
(i) power quality,
(iii)adequacy, security,
(iv) power flow control,
(v) energy management,
(vi) frequency control
(vii) and protection
OPPORTUNITY
There are many reasons due to which the scope of DG is improving
and is gaining popularity, are discussed below:
(i) Liberalisation of markets: The primary reason is that they
see it to maintain a good repute in the market where consumers
look for the appropriate electricity service. DG permits
stakeholders of the electricity sector to adapt to varying market
conditions in a much flexible manner.
(ii) Peak shaving: Many DG technologies are flexible in numerous
aspects. These aspects majorly include size, operating mode,
and extent of expandability. Utilizing DG allows to respond
amenably to variations in electricity price developments. DG
then serves as a border against these price instabilities.
Seemingly, this is the primary driver for the demand for DG in
various countries i.e. using DG for continuous or peaking
purpose.
(iii)Reliability and Power Quality: Another major motivating
factor for using DG is supply quality and reliability. Reliability
issues indicate sustained interruptions i.e. voltage drops near to
zero. The liberalization of electricity markets makes consumers
extra conscious of the importance of reliability of electricity
supply. It must be mentioned that customers do not bother
about supply interruptions. A high reliability level means a high
investment and maintenance costs for the network and
generation organization.
(iv)Use of Local Network: DG could partially serve as an auxiliary
network for investments in transmission and distribution
capacity (demand for DG from Transmission and Distribution
companies) or as a bypass for transmission and distribution
costs (DG demand from electricity consumers).DG could
partially serve as an auxiliary network for investments in
transmission and distribution capacity (demand for DG from
Transmission and Distribution companies) or as a bypass for
transmission and distribution costs (DG demand from electricity
consumers).
(v) Grid Support: DG can also contribute in the delivery of
subsidiary services, including those essential to maintain a
steady grid operation of the customers. This can include the
ability to generate active power when demanded by grid
network operator, for example, to keep a system in steady state
when its frequency is declining due to an abrupt drop in
generation or due to a severe fault on the main grid.
(vi)Environmental and economic benefits: recent studies have
established that prevalent use of DG technologies substantially
reduces emissions. Some of the DG technologies such as wind
turbines, solar photovoltaic panels, and hydroelectric turbines,
do not use any kind of fossil fuels while others such as fuel cells,
microturbines, and some internal combustion units burn oil and
natural gas. The increasing assortment can protect the economy
from price shocks, interruptions, and fuel shortages.
(vii)Energy security: DGs deliver more energy security as
compared to large conventional power plants in case of harsh
weather conditions, natural catastrophes, human mistakes, and
cyber-attacks. If a centralized power plant collapses, an
enormous blackout may occur in the adjacent residential area
and it can lead to a calamity for the people nearby.
CHALLENGES
1. Grid connected mode: the main utility grid is active and the
static switch is closed. All feeders are getting their power from
the main grid. In other words, critical loads (on Feeders A and
B) and noncritical loads (on Feeder C) are being supplied by the
main grid
2. Islanding: Under this mode, the main grid is cut off and is not
supplying power. The main grid might be turned off due to fault or
maintenance purposes. The static switch is open. Microsources
supply Feeders A and B. Feeder C is dead as it is not sensitive. In
other words, critical loads are being supplied power by the micro
sources; and non-critical loads (on Feeder C) are cut-off from the
system.
3. Voltage and frequency control: In a typical electric power
system, active and reactive power generated must be in balanced
condition with the power consumed by the loads, including the
losses in the transmission/distribution lines. The unbalanced
condition occurs when power generated is not equal to the power
demanded. This causes a deviation of the system frequency from
its set point value (60 Hz). The aim of voltage and frequency
control is to ensure that both the voltage and the frequency remain
within predefined limits around the set point values by regulating
active and reactive power generated or consumed. In a typical
microgrid, a daunting task is to operate more than one DG source
on the island. In such case, it is not possible to use the active and
reactive power control. It is essential to regulate the voltage during
microgrid operation by using a voltage versus reactive power droop
controller for attaining local reliability and stability
4. Power imbalance: A power imbalance happens during the
transition process from grid-connected to islanded mode when the
microgrid is absorbing or supplying power to the main grid before
disconnection. Energy storage units are used to maintain power
balance due to the slow dynamic response and low inertia of some
DG sources.
5. Harmonics: The harmonic currents, which can occur in a typical
microgrid, need to be abridged to reduce harmonic losses. The
abrupt switching causes huge reduction in lower order harmonic
currents compared to the line-commutated converter.
6. Faults: two kinds of faults are considered: three-phase
symmetrical faults and single line-to-ground faults. The reason
being that single line-to- ground is the most common fault and
three-phase fault is typically the most severe. There are many
sources of faults, including natural events, physical accidents,
equipment failure and misoperation. As evident from the figure,
natural events such as lightning, earthquakes, sand- storms,
snowstorms etc. have a good share in causing system faults.
Sometimes, human error and physical accidents play a negative
role by inducing faults on lines and transformers.
7. Single-phase connection faults: Some DG sources input single
phase power into the distribution grid, for instance, small
photovoltaic (PV) systems. This badly disturbs the balance of the
three-phase current as unbalanced neutral current rises. This leads
to the flow of stray earth currents. It is essential to restrict this
current to avert the issue of overloading.