Industrial Networks Performance Enhancement Using Fuzzy Controlled Distributed Generation

Induction Motors (IM) are one of the main and voltage sensitive loads within industrial centers whose start-up and loading characteristics affect the nearby loads adversely. The performance of induction motors is influenced by their supply voltage; thus, such faults as short circuits can lead to their instability. Distributed Generation Units (DGUs), recently applied by electric utilities and consumers with a remarkable growth, can provide the desired active power based on a proper control algorithm and configuration of such voltage source converters as parallel, series and hybrid in one hand, and compensate for various power quality and voltage regulation problems, on the other; hence so called Flexible Distributed Generation (FDG). In this paper, a new interface is introduced for connecting DGUs to the distribution network. The proposed interface is not only able to provide some portion of active power to loads, but also maintains the nominal voltage for a wide range of operational conditions. Hence, it can replace such compensation devices as Distribution Static Compensators (D-STATCOM) or On-Load Tap Changer transformers (OLTC), which have already being used for voltage regulation of distribution networks. Within the interface, a fuzzy controller is used for the voltage control loop. Computer simulation in MATLAB-Simulink proves the performance enhancement of the interface.