Development of an innovative grid ancillary service for PV installations: Methodology, communication issues and experimental results

Effect of Ripple Control on Induction Motors

“…In many countries [1], operators of distribution systems (DSs) use power lines to transmit communication signals. One possible remote management method of DS operation [2] is based on the superimposition of interharmonics on the voltage waveform [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]components of frequency not being an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. The novelized version of the standard [12] (2019) calls the injected signals "mains communication voltage" (MCV) and specifies the frequency range as 0.1-100 kHz.…”

“…The novelized version of the standard [12] (2019) calls the injected signals "mains communication voltage" (MCV) and specifies the frequency range as 0.1-100 kHz. In the case of interharmonics with a frequency less than 3 kHz, the method is commonly dubbed "ripple control" (RC) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…The signal is typically injected into a medium-voltage network and transmitted to a lowvoltage grid via power transformers [6,9,11]. In the low-voltage network, it is used to manage customers' electric meters and various energy receivers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Furthermore, it can be applied for load peak reduction in the network [6,10].…”

“…In the low-voltage network, it is used to manage customers' electric meters and various energy receivers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Furthermore, it can be applied for load peak reduction in the network [6,10]. If the power demand reaches a programmable threshold, some loads, for example, hot water boilers, heat pumps, or swimming pool pumps, can be switched off [6].…”

“…A new challenge for RC is the effective governing of residential photovoltaic systems (PVs) and electric vehicle chargers and batteries [4,5,7,10]. For example, RC allows the use of sun-tracking systems for PVs to adjust the generated power to the actual grid demand [10]. Controlling PVs with RC is much more cost effective than with the Internet [5].…”