A hands-on renewable energy based laboratory for power quality education

Abstract

This paper reports design and construction of a testbed for the experimental study of wind/solar "hybrid" power systems for undergraduate power systems engineering technology education. This testbed consists of a small Photovoltaic Solar Array, a DC Wind Turbine/Generator, deep cycle storage batteries, a solid-state DC/AC power inverter, connecting wiring and fuses, AC and DC circuit breakers, lightning arrester, a wind monitor, a Lab-View based data acquisition system, and supporting instruments. Experimental results are presented depicting power quality issues such as harmonic generation due to the nonlinear loads, and voltage sags due to load switching operations on the AC side.