Modeling and simulation of an ac microgrid for harmonics study

The deployment of ac microgrids including distributed energy resources (DERs) can reduce the investment cost of building new fossil-fuel based power plants, facilitate the carbon-oxide reduction, provide reactive power compensation and frequency regulation, increasing spin reserve, and enhance the system stability. However, some undesired effects such as imbalance, voltage fluctuation, and harmonics accompanied with the operations of DERs and nonlinear loads, which may affect the power quality (PQ) within the microgrid system. This paper presents a simulation-based study of harmonics impact within an ac microgrid and the effectiveness of the mitigation solutions. Results obtained illustrate that potential harmonic problems are identified and the harmonics mitigating solutions can be used for the planning of a microgrid deployment and its PQ assessment.