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- Overvoltage protection for grid-connected picohydro generation using photovoltaic invertersPublication . Scotta, Isabella Cristina; Maidana, Wellington; Leite, VicenteVery small-scale hydropower plants are environmentally friendly and renewable resource-based innovative solutions. The interest in pico-hydro systems (up to 5 kW) has increased significantly from the first stand-alone applications, at remote sites, to the distributed generation, with the injection of generated energy into the grid. Recently, there have been advances in the grid connection of these systems using off-the-shelf components, namely photovoltaic inverters. Therefore, pico-hydro systems have gained an enormous potential in distributed generation, particularly in the context of microgrids. However, in situations of over-power, or whenever the generator is under no load, e.g. when the grid fails, there is a need for effective over-voltage protection, as in small wind turbines. This paper proposes two over-voltage protection circuits, designed to ensure the integration of pico-hydro turbines connected to the grid using conventional photovoltaic microinverters and string inverters, for power ranges of 300 W and some kW, respectively. Extensive tests were performed on an emulation platform and a workbench using these two different over-voltage protection circuits. One is designed to connect the generators of water wheels to the grid and the other to connect 1,500 W generators of water turbines. The experimental results demonstrated the performance of the proposed over-voltage protection circuits in four different situations. Both avoid irreversible damages of generators, photovoltaic microinverters and string inverters in the context of the above-described grid connection approach.
- Over-voltage protection for pico-hydro generation using PV microinvertersPublication . Scotta, Isabella Cristina; Ribeiro, Gabriela Moreira; Maidana, Wellington; Leite, V.Innovative, low-cost, environmentally friendly and renewable resource-based solutions are emerging to meet growing global energy demand. Hydroelectric technology is quite old and mature. Despite its importance, it is associated with large plants, with environmental impact. On contrary, small-scale systems, called pico-hydro systems (up to 5 kW) are not yet explored. Anyway, the exploration of pico-hydro systems has been increasing consistently, from the first off-grid applications in remote places to distributed generation, with the injection of the generated energy in the main grid or microgrids. Very recently, there have been advances in grid connection of these small-scale systems, using off-the-shelf components. Indeed, pico-hydro systems can be connected to the grid using off-the-shelf components, namely photovoltaic inverters. Thus, grid-connected pico-hydro systems have gained an enormous potential in distributed production. However, in situations of over-power, or whenever the generator is under no load, there is a need for effective over-voltage protection, unlike photovoltaic systems. The goal of this paper is to propose an over-voltage protection circuit, designed to ensure the integration of low-power pico-hydro systems connected to the grid using conventional photovoltaic microinverters. Extensive tests were performed on an experimental platform using three microinverters easily found on the market and a low power generator (300 W) developed for small wind turbines. The experimental results, demonstrated the performance of the proposed over-voltage protection circuit in four different situations, presented in this work, thus avoiding irreversible damages of generators and microinverters, in the context of the above described grid connection approach.