Design and Experimental Verification of an Intelligent Power Quality Control System

To address the electrical power quality issues at the end of the distribution network, this paper introduces the design of an Intelligent Power Quality Conditioner System (IPCS) deployed at the distribution network's endpoint. This system simultaneously resolves various power quality issues such as reactive power, three-phase imbalances, and harmonics at the source. The study substantiates the significant advantages of endpoint power quality management through a comparative analysis of centralized control, on-site control, and endpoint control. Considering the limited capacity of individual IPCS devices, which often necessitates collaborative operation, this paper further proposes the integration of two operational modes for multiple IPCS units: full-frequency current compensation and low-order harmonic priority compensation. Utilizing a high-power-density IPCS prototype designed in this research, an experimental platform with two parallel IPCS units was established to validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategies for harmonic current compensation and low-order harmonic priority compensation, in addition to demonstrating the essential power quality control functions of the devices.