Innovative research initiatives undertaken by team of RMIT University researchers and with MIL-Systems, to find better ways of integrating home-generated solar power into the electricity grid

The involvement of renewable energy generators such as solar panels and wind generators has supported and helped to reduce emissions. Whereas the surplus energy from household renewable energy sources fed back into the grid can lead to challenges for electrical distribution networks to deliver a high-quality electricity supply at a regulated voltage. This Surplus renewable energy fed back into the grid can change the direction of energy flow and hence the voltage profile along a distribution line. Hence there are significant challenges in controlling the voltages between the utility substations and the end-use consumers. Voltage levels can rise above safe limits in the grid and the electrical supply to that part of the network may fail.

Professor Grahame Holmes, Innovation Professor in Smart Energy at RMIT, and his Power and Energy Research Group within the RMIT Platform Technologies Research Institute are working with MIL-Systems, a local inverter manufacturer, to address these challenges. They are developing a leading edge reactive power control (RPC) inverter to better regulate the flow of power within the grid that results from energy injected from renewable systems. The team is also working to resolve the issue, “How to control large numbers of RPC inverters to maintain voltage regulation along a distribution line as local loading conditions vary”.

The solutions presently available are quite expensive so such alternative approaches to regulating electrical energy distribution are gaining significant interest across the world. This research project is supported with a grant of $647,000 by Victorian Department of Primary Industries Sustainable Energy Research. The project will drive improvements in energy efficiency and facilitate investment in sustainable energy supply sources to support the continuing competitiveness of industrial base. Such innnovative research is an essential precursor to allow the widespread implementation of enhanced voltage regulation for electricity grids with integrated solar energy systems. Professor Grahame Holmes states that once their research project work will be completed, appropriate regulatory standards related to solar energy systems could be amended to allow the implantation of RPC inverters in the community.

                                                        

Source 

    http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=lnyx1gdmgbow

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