Author : Sonali N. Kulkarni, Prashant Shingare

Over the past three decades global energy consumption has increased drastically due to industrialization, automation of various systems and rise in utilization of domestic machine appliances. In order to fulfill the increasing power demand, the power sector is looking for renewable energy sources as an alternative to conventional sources. The Renewable Energy is generated using distributed generation. Renewable Energy is unpredictable, non storable and intermittent due to varying nature of natural resources. Today’s biggest challenge is to accommodate excess generation of Renewable Energy into existing power system without disturbing power quality. The power quality and hence stability of power system gets affected due penetration of Renewable Energy and loading effect of transmission lines corresponding to small disturbances. Therefore, it is a challenging task to maintain healthy, reliable and smart electrical power transmission and distribution system. This paper deals with the power quality parameters, challenges in Renewable Energy grid integration and the possible solutions to maintain power quality.

Keywords: Distributed Generation, Frequency variation, Grid Integration, Grid Stability, Harmonic Distortion, Low Voltage Ride Through, Micro Grid, Power Quality, Renewable Energy, Smart Grid, Voltage Sag.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.6, No.5 (Oct-2016)