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The power quality issues are challenging in microgrid due to the presence of various types of renewable energy resources unlike conventional power system. So, the main objective of this research is to quantify the power quality considering the fuzziness in variation of voltage, frequency, power factor and total harmonic distortion (THD) due to the occurrence of voltage sag, swell, interruption and unbalancing in three-phase AC microgrid feeding static and rotational loads. Therefore, a novel power quality monitoring index (PQMI) is proposed to determine the status of power quality. Total 256 numbers of rules are formed for fuzzy inference system (FIS) to assess PQMI considering the acceptable limits of above mentioned four input variables as per IEEE/IEC standards. The proposed methodology is verified through Mamdani and Sugeno type FIS using Matlab-Simulink software. It is also found that the proposed PQMI is significant to define the status of microgrid even during transition from grid-connected to islanded mode and vice-versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To find a sustainable municipal solid waste (MSW) management and renewable electricity generation system is need of the hour. In modern hybrid electricity generation systems, the use of MSW on priority is not evaluated yet. To satisfy this need, a small scale MSW based microgrid is proposed and evaluated in economic and reliability terms. First, the waste of the selected city is characterized considering four seasons summer, spring, autumn and winter for a complete year. Then a microgrid system is designed using MSW processing techniques namely, anaerobic digestion (AD) and gasification that are further integrated with solar photovoltaic (PV) system, battery and the main grid. The size of the microgrid is optimized using an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm targeting the configuration that meets the desired system reliability requirements with minimum cost. The proposed system found as a sustainable approach to process the MSW of a small city (0.1 million population) and a reliable mean to fulfill the electricity demand of a village having 225 houses in India. The annualized system cost (ASC) of the proposed hybrid system found to be INR 5760919 with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) 5.65 INR/kWh (0.0737 USD/kWh). The total MSW landfilling avoided cost is 451898.9 INR/year that is 17% of its processing cost. [Display omitted] • Proposed sustainable utilization of municipal solid waste for electricity generation. • Municipal solid waste based microgrid is conceptualized and optimized. • Proposed system is evaluated in economic and reliability terms. • The system avoids a significant amount of investment for landfilling of waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A microgrid is an integrated form of distributed energy resources (DERs) which are connected together to serve electrical power to the selected consumers or can exchange power with the existing utility grid suitably under standalone or grid connected mode. The microgrid can be cited as a physical system which is a combination of DERs such as, Photovoltaic Generator, Wind turbine, Fuel Cell, Microturbine etc. and can be modelled with suitable assumptions depending upon specific operational condition to be studied. Interconnection of several kinds of power sources would impact the quality of power within the microgrid. Since voltage and frequency are not the only factors for a system delivering good quality power, the capacity of the same to withstand instability due to transient condition is one of the prime factors to be considered to accept a system as a stable system. Before practical integration of distributed energy resources, it would be essential to check the stability of the system at the design stage. In this paper, the authors have presented the microgrid based on control system engineering. To represent the individual components of microgrid, the DERs (Distributed Energy Resources) have been represented with their transfer functions and they have been simulated using Simulink-Matlab. To observe the response of the DERs, the frequency fluctuation due to step and random change in output power/load are considered as the main factors for stability analysis. All the DERs are integrated forming the microgrid which is represented with an equivalent transfer function based model. The models are studied and results are discussed with the waveforms. This paper shows one feasible method to check the dynamic stability of a proposed microgrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, the farmers find open burning is the cheapest and easiest way for removing large loads of the produced rice straw causing environmental pollution. So, finding a sustainable rice straw management system is need of the hour. In modern hybrid electricity generation systems, the use of rice straw on priority is not evaluated yet. To satisfy this need, this article proposes conceptualization and techno-economic evaluation of a small-scale rice straw based microgrid that processes the surplus rice straw of a village having 250 houses and 900 acres of cultivated land for power generation. The system is capable to process the 1128 tonne/year of 1surplus rice straw and meet the electrical load demand of the same village. The gasification technique is used to process the rice straw, which is further integrated with solar, battery and the utility grid. The optimum size of the microgrid is found using artificial bee colony algorithm. The economic evaluation of the proposed microgrid is organized on the basis of net present cost, annualized system cost and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The LCOE of the proposed system is found to be acceptable which is 6.70 INR/kWh (0.089 $/kWh). [Display omitted] • Proposed sustainable utilization of surplus rice straw for electricity generation. • Rice straw based microgrid is conceptualized and optimized for a rural community. • Proposed system is evaluated in economic and reliability terms. • The proposed system is found economically feasible and reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]