ALBERT

Description: The electrical infrastructure around the globe is expanding at a rapid rate for the sake of fulfilling power demands in the domestic, commercial and entertainment industries aiming to boost the living standards. In this regard, renewable energy sources (RES) are globally accepted potential candidates for maintaining inexhaustible, clean, and reliable electricity with a supplementary feature of economic prospect. The efficiency of power distribution at reduced cost to the consumers can be further enhanced by introducing a two-way billing system so-called net-metering which has the potential to overcome issues such as voltage regulation, power blackouts, overstressed grid and need for expensive storage systems thereby making it beneficial for the grid and the end user. This envisioning has encouraged the Government of Pakistan to install net-metering infrastructure at places which accommodate surplus renewable energy reserves. According to the Electric Power Act 1997, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) issued the net-metering rules and regulations in September 2015 by the endorsement of Federal Government which allowed the distribution companies in Pakistan to buy surplus electricity units generated by the consumers in order to partly reimburse the units imported from the utility grid. The aim behind this research work is to promote renewable energy utilization through net-metering mechanism in order to achieve maximum power. The export of units from consumer side to utility grid and vice versa can be made through bidirectional energy meter. In this paper, a solar net-metering analysis has been carried out on ETAP software to determine its benefits in a distribution network. Different scenarios have been investigated, and it is concluded that solar net-metering technique has multiple influential benefits, e.g., improvement in voltage regulation, reduction in transmission and distribution losses, increase in power availability, less billing to consumers, and reduction of loading on utility grid.

Description: Decentralized power generation efficaciously merges technological advances in a rapidly changing face of power networks introducing new power system components, advanced control, renewable sources, elegant communication, and web technology paving the way for the so called smart grids. Distributed generation technology lies at the intersection point of power systems, power electronics, control engineering, renewable energy, and communication systems which are not mutually exclusive subjects. Key features of renewable integration in a distribution network include loss minimization, voltage stability, power quality improvement, and low-cost consumption resulting from abundant natural resources such as solar or wind energy. In this research work, a case study has been carried out at a 132 kV grid station of Layyah, Pakistan, which has active losses, reactive losses, low power factor, low voltage on the demand side, and overloaded transformers and distribution lines. As a result, power outage issue is frequent on the consumer side. To overcome this issue, a simulation of load flow of this system is performed using the Newton-Raphson method due to its less computational time, fewer iterations, fast convergence, and independence from slack bus selection. It finds the harsh condition in which there were 23 overloaded transformers, 38 overloaded distribution lines, poor voltage profile, and low power factor at the demand side. There is a deficit of 24 MW in the whole system along with 4.58 MW active and 12.30 MVAR reactive power losses. To remove power deficiency, distributed generation using solar plants is introduced to an 11 kV distribution system with a total of 24 units with each unit having a capacity of 1 MW. Consequently, active and reactive power losses are reduced to 0.548 MW and 0.834 MVAR, respectively. Furthermore, the voltage profile improves, the power factor enhances, and the line losses reduce to a great extent. Finally, overloaded transformers and distribution lines also return to normal working conditions.

Description: In recent years, the upturn demand of electricity and the generation of electrical power demand from fossil fuels are increasing day by day which results in environmental impacts on the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, and a high cost of electric power from these sources makes it unaffordable. The use of renewable energy sources can overcome this problem. Therefore, in this work, we present a solution by implementing the solar car parking lots. A detailed work has been done for solar car parking site selection and maximum solar electric power generation and its capacity effects with the shading of nearby trees and buildings by using the HelioScope online software developed by Folsom Labs. A detailed optimization and selection of car parking canopies are performed at different standard tilt angles to produce maximum solar photovoltaic energy, and it is analyzed that the monopitch canopy is the best to mount at solar car parking lots at a tilt angle of 10°. We have done a detailed economic analysis which shows that 14% electricity cost was offset by the installation of a solar car parking lot with 17% reduction in annual energy consumption from the grid at the proposed site. The total investment cost of the parking structure and the photovoltaic (PV) system can be paid back in 6-7 years.

Description: The effects of the wind/PV grid-connected system (GCS) can be categorized as technical, environmental, and economic impacts. It has a vital impact for improving the voltage in the power systems; however, it has some negative effects such as interfacing and fault clearing. This paper discusses different grounding methods for fault protection of High-voltage (HV) power systems. Influences of these grounding methods for various fault characteristics on wind/PV GCSs are discussed. Simulation models are implemented in the Alternative Transient Program (ATP) version of the Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP). The models allow for different fault factors and grounding methods. Results are obtained to evaluate the impact of each grounding method on the 3-phase short-circuit fault (SCF), double-line-to-ground (DLG) fault, and single-line-to-ground (SLG) fault features. Solid, resistance, and Petersen coil grounding are compared for different faults on wind/PV GCSs. Transient overcurrent and overvoltage waveforms are used to describe the fault case. This paper is intended as a guide to engineers in selecting adequate grounding and ground fault protection schemes for HV, for evaluating existing wind/PV GCSs to minimize the damage of the system components from faults. This research presents the contribution of wind/PV generators and their comparison with the conventional system alone.