Active and Reactive Power Control for PV based Water Pumping System

Abstract

The scarcity of fossil fuels and lack of electrification of several rural areas in developing countries like India has encouraged the use of renewable energy sources in recent times. The solar photovoltaic power is of great relevance in areas where electric lines are not yet laid. Since agriculture is generally the main source of income in most of rural India, irrigation is one of the biggest challenges. PV powered pumping systems have gained popularity in the past few decades. The nature of the load demands an active and reactive power control in standalone systems powered by renewable sources. There are several techniques to achieve active and reactive power control in a microgrid. In this paper a technique to control PQ is employed to a PV powered composite load and results are evaluated using MATLAB/SIMULINK.