Solid State Power Substations for Future Power Grids
Publication Name
2023 IEEE International Conference on Energy Technologies for Future Grids, ETFG 2023
Abstract
The growing integration of renewable energy sources (RES) is consistently reshaping the power generation mix, while the shift of electricity end-users from customers to prosumers is altering the load patterns. Additionally, as future power grids are expected to include DC resources and DC networks, conventional substations, which are primarily designed for AC networks, may be impacted. This paper proposes a solid-state substation (SSS) as a promising candidate for future power substations in future power grids. With the ability to include DC buses alongside AC buses, the proposed solid-state substation can provide additional functionalities, such as serving DC loads, facilitating RES integration, and delivering system-level advantages. This paper also presents the key fundamental differences in terms of layout and operation between conventional power substations and solid-state substations, while emphasizing the basic control architecture of solid-state substations. To validate the benefits of the solid-state substation over conventional substations at the system level, the IEEE 13-node test feeder is modified to replace one substation with the proposed SSS and simulated using the Matlab/Simulink platform. The comparison between the simulation results of the original and the modified system using the proposed SSS show that using the proposed SSS improves the voltage profile and the power factor of the entire system and provides resilient operation during grid disturbances.
Open Access Status
This publication is not available as open access