Time: Friday, April 29 from 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM EST

Location: Via ZOOM ,  download calendar file

Presenter 1: Paychuda "Pay" Kritprajun, University of Tennesee 

Title: Reactive Power Allocation of PV Inverters for Voltage Support in Power Systems Based on Transactive Energy Approach

Abstract: Reactive power support is a part of ancillary services that is becoming more important due to an increase of distributed energy resources (DERs) in today’s power systems. The intermittent nature of the DERs also increases the challenges of voltage management in power systems, and limitations of power system reinforcement are becoming a bottleneck to improving reliability of power systems. Thus, cooperation of existing equipment, including utility-owned and nonutility-owned assets, can be utilized to achieve higher reliability of the system. A transactive energy approach is proposed to coordinate the non-utility DERs to participate in reactive power support. Voltage sensitivity is used to determine the impact of DERs at different locations that will simultaneously participate in a reactive power market. The modified DERs’ supply curve is constructed to evaluate the impact of DERs’ locations based on the transactive energy approach. The performance of the proposed method is validated by comparing to other location-based and non-location-based reactive power dispatch methods. An implementation of the modified DER’s supply curve can successfully improve the voltage at the target location by an amount that is specified by the system.

Bio: Paychuda Kritprajun received her B.S. degree in electrical engineering from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand in 2014, and her M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA in 2020. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her research interests include grid-connected PV and energy storage systems, renewable energy integration, and microgrids.

Presenter 2: Nattapat "Natt" Praisuwanna, University of Tennesee

Title: Fault Detection Method by Utilizing Instantaneous Power Theory for Inverter-based Distributed Generation

Abstract: The integration of distributed generation (DG) into electric grid systems results in some significant consequences for the protection of distributed systems. Distributed systems that have high penetration of inverter-based distributed generation (IDG) will have changes in fault current levels causing traditional overcurrent protective devices to not operate as intended. As a result, distributed systems require new protection schemes to deal with the wide varieties of IDG, which need significant investment in the protection devices. This presentation will discuss the impact of IDGs on the protection of the distributed system. To solve the issues faced in grids with IDG, a fault detection method that utilizes instantaneous power theory is proposed. Simulation results illustrate how this theory can be used to detect faults even with low fault current levels.

Bio: Nattapat Praisuwanna is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand in 2009 and 2011, respectively. His research interests include inverter design, inverter based-distributed generation control and integration, microgrid and renewable energy resources.

Watch the recorded seminar

Upcoming CURENT Power and Energy Seminars

May 6 - Rupy Sawhney, University of Tennessee - People-Centric Operational Excellence Model

May 10 - Joe Zhou, Kettering University - Energy Storage Systems