Power Quality Enhancement For A Standalone Photovoltaic System

A distribution network connected to rural consumers is often quite weak due to the long distance. Hence, an increase in power demand over this network will result to power quality problems. The main cause of this unacceptable situation is the inability of the power system to meet the demand of reactive power. Inductive loads are the main cause of power quality problems and they are widely used in domestic and industrial sector, contributing to inefficient use of energy. In this paper, a reactive power compensator is proposed to give voltage stabilization, good power quality and to control non-linear loads in a standalone photovoltaic system. The results obtained show significant enhancement in terms of power factor correction of 0.87, thereby improving the power quality of the system.