The aim
of this paper is to present the concept of a simple and cheap upgrade for
electric water boilers, allowing them to provide power quality services to the
distribution grid. The upgrade requires only minimum additional hardware and it
is easily installable. “Smart Boilers”, as the upgraded boilers are named,
perform precise active and reactive power control, but most significantly
mitigate line current harmonics. Αctive and reactive power control is
implemented by appropriate regulation of the modulation sinewave amplitude and
phase, respectively. This type of control is easily customizable in order to accommodate
a variety of power quality targets, depending on the required level of services
and available grid monitoring equipment. The method used for line current
harmonic compensation is based on the injection of mirror harmonics created at
the modulation stage of the converter. It is indifferent of harmonic source: it
is equally successful at mitigating harmonics caused by the power electronic
converter of the Smart Boiler, other sources of current harmonics or loads. The
achieved grid services are clearly beyond the “on/off” operation of electric
boilers, currently implemented by Demand Side Management (DSM) in order to
shift load away from peak hours. It has been demonstrated through simulations,
that Smart Boilers can assist voltage regulation at terminal buses, compensate
reactive power and suppress harmonic currents at lines.
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