Mitigation of photovoltaic power generation fluctuations using plug-in hybrid electric vehicles storage batteries

A control strategy for the battery of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) to mitigate the voltage fluctuation of a distribution system fed by photovoltaic (PV) power generation is presented in this paper. In a normal PV power generation, the batteries of PHEVs are set in the controlled charging mode. When a PV power generation fluctuates because of fast cloud transients, the developed controller allows PHEVs batteries to compensate for the PV power variations. The advantage of the proposed control method is that the severe voltage transients are avoided in power networks. The developed control strategy uses fuzzy method to operate with bidirectional interface inverter. Actual transformer tap changer and time series data of solar irradiance based on 5-s intervals are used to study the impact of PV power variations on a 33-bus radial distribution feeder. The results show that the reactive power compensation of PV interface inverter enhances the feeder voltage profile during full cloudy skies. However, during cloud transients, the application of PHEVs storage systems is necessary to alleviate the feeder voltage flicker. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.