This means that microgrid designers do not have to start from scratch in designing power systems for each new community. Importantly, this calculation does not rely on a network’s particular configuration of transmission lines and power sources. The team calculated the minimum capacitance on a particular load that is required to maintain a microgrid’s stability, given the total load, or power a community consumes. The researchers found they can ensure a microgrid’s stability by installing capacitors, which are devices that even out spikes and dips in voltage, of a particular size, or capacitance. Now engineers at MIT have developed a method for guaranteeing the stability of any microgrid that runs on direct current, or DC - an architecture that was originally proposed as part of the MIT Tata Center’s uLink project. This limits the amount of power that any appliance can draw from a network - a conservative measure that increases a microgrid’s reliability but comes with a significant cost. Small disturbances, such as plugging in a certain appliance or one too many phone chargers, can cause a microgrid to destabilize and short out.įor this reason, engineers have typically designed microgrids in simple, centralized configurations with thick cables and large capacitors. However, the smaller a power system, the more vulnerable it is to outages. Microgrids are small-scale power systems that supply local energy, typically in the form of solar power, to localized consumers, such as individual households or small villages. Increasingly, many rural and some urban communities are turning to microgrids as an alternative source of electricity. In these and other developing countries, access to a main power grid, particularly in rural regions, is remote and often unreliable. Today, more than 1.3 billion people are living without regular access to power, including more than 300 million in India and 600 million in sub-Saharan Africa.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |