Electric spring configurations: Comprehensive analysis

Abstract

The Electric Spring (ES) has been introduced as an advanced strategy to achieve equilibrium between power generation and consumption. For taming the erratic nature of renewable energy sources (RES), this paper provides the analysis of the three different configurations of ES. In this paper, the work is focused on the performance comparison of the three different versions of ES namely ES-1, ES-2 and Back-to Back ES (ES-B2B). The structure of different configuration is also explained. For a known span of the voltage deviation the quantity requirement for all configurations to provide the required voltage compensation is compared. It turns out that the ES-B2B configuration is highly effective in achieving the voltage regulation than the other two configurations of ES. The ES-2 configuration overcomes the limitation of ES-1 whereas ES-B2B configuration broadens the operating capability of ES-1. Also, multilevel inverter based ES configuration is simulated to demonstrate the feasibility of multilevel inverter and use of multiple ES in the grid. The performances of different configurations and their controls are discussed, while their comprehensive comparative evaluations are done using MATLAB environment.