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GUJCOST Funded project “Multi-objective Control of Power Quality Friendly PV based Distributed Generation for Effective Energy Storage and Utilization in Smart Grid”

India as rapidly is moving on the path of transformation from a developing nation to a developed one, its electrical energy demand is continuously increasing. This increased demand is due to the government of India initiative of Make in India. This increased demand of electrical power needs to be catered by developing new avenues of electrical power generation. One of the ways to achieve this is by augmenting the thermal or conventional power generation capabilities. But on the other hand, this approach will lead to increased carbon foot print of India and also augment our fuel import bill. Hence, it is better to offset the increased electrical power demand by developing generation avenues using renewable energy sources, solar being the focussed one. This philosophy of generation augmentation is also reflected in the recent government policies and regulations. As per Gujarat Renewable Energy Policy 2023, state wants to augment its solar generation capacity by focussing on harnessing its potential of 36 GW of solar capacity to support the national target of 50% of cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by the year 2030. Partial contribution to this augmentation will be achieved from solar photovoltaic (PV) roof top installations connected to the grid (i.e. PV based DG). Out of total solar roof top capacity in India, Gujarat has been front runner with nearly 1700 MW of installations. Increased level of automation in industrial applications as well as penetration of electronics in nearly all domains, non-linear loads have increased in the existing power system. This has led to issues of reactive power management as well as power quality deterioration, which affect in a detrimental manner the power system operation and hence needs to be addressed by the utilities. All the PV roof top systems remain idle during night time and hence if controlled appropriately will help in managing reactive power concerns of the grid. Also, these PV systems can mitigate harmonics thereby improving the power quality. Development of smart grid is the continuous effort put up by the state utilities as well as governments. Hence, the proposed multi-objective-controlled power quality friendly PV based Distributed Generation with effective energy storage will increase the effective utilization of electric power as well as development of the smart grid.