EAGER: Wireless Power Quality Management System for Residential Applications

越来越多地使用节能家电有助于减少居民消费者的能源使用。家用电器和能源管理系统的结合被提出为智能家居的一种节能解决方案。然而，对无功的需求不仅降低了输电和配电线路损耗造成的整体能效，而且对无功的监管不力还降低了消费电器的使用寿命；两者每年的损失都可以量化为数十亿美元。在这个项目中，将评估各种家用电器的可用无功容量。这些电器的无功容量将满足无功需求。通常，洗衣机和空调等家用电器具有前端功率因数校正(PFC)转换器，以满足能源之星认证的功率因数条件。这些PFC电路通常是低成本的单向升压转换器。该PFC变流器在功率容量较小的情况下，可以实现多种家用电器的协同工作，满足配电网的无功需求。还将开发无线家庭电源管理系统，以1)管理每个设备提供的无功补偿，以及2)与智能家居能源管理网络或先进的计量接口系统合作，以满足高峰需求响应的目的。因此，输电线路和配电线路的功率损耗以及无功功率变化引起的电压波动将显著减少。拟议框架的成功将导致住宅应用中电能质量的显著提高，而消费者几乎没有额外的成本。这项研究的目的是构建、仿真和调查无线电能质量管理系统的有效性，该系统利用家用电器、小型太阳能发电机和电动汽车的可用功率容量，这些电能容量都可以在住宅和智能家居应用中找到。所提出的方法协调单向和双向变流器的有功和无功功率支持以及谐波控制能力，以降低电能质量。采用低功耗的实时无线网络作为通信基础设施，在电能质量管理器和变流器之间交换电能质量信息。这些聚合变流器中的有功功率、无功功率和谐波失真补偿的混合控制将是这项技术的关键推动因素。该项目将进行技术调研、无线网络和监控控制器设计，通过概念验证设计进行实验验证，并进行家电无功支持的实施和可行性测试。这项拟议的研究具有变革性，因为它提供了一个基本的、高度可扩展的框架，用于监测、缓解和提高住宅应用中的电能质量，从单一建筑电力系统到社区和城市范围的电力系统，特别是在使用可再生能源的微电网、电能质量监测系统和智能家电中。

Increasing use of energy efficient home appliances contributes to the reduction of energy usage by residential consumers. The combination of home appliances and energy management systems has been proposed as an energy efficient solution for smart homes. However, the need of reactive power not only reduces overall energy efficiency due to losses incurred in transmission and distribution power lines, but also poor regulation of reactive power degrades the lifespan of consumer appliances; both quantifiable in billions of dollars in losses per year. In this project, the available reactive power capacities in various home appliances will be evaluated. The reactive power demand will be met by the reactive power capacity of these appliances. Typically, home appliances such as laundry machines and air conditioners have a front-end power factor correction (PFC) converter to satisfy power factor conditions for Energy Star certification. These PFC circuits are usually low-cost unidirectional boost converters. Even though the power capacity in this PFC converter is small, multiple home appliances can cooperate to meet the reactive power demand in distribution level power networks. A wireless home power management system will also be developed to 1) manage the reactive power compensation provided by each appliance, and 2) cooperate with smart home energy management networks or advanced metering interface systems for peak demand response purposes. As a result, the power losses due to the transmission lines and distribution lines, and voltage fluctuations due to variations in reactive power will be significantly reduced. The success of the proposed framework will result in significant enhancement of power quality in residential applications at little to no extra cost to the consumer. Furthermore, the life-cycle of the home appliances will be improved; and lastly, CO2 emissions will be reduced.The objective of this research is to construct, emulate, and investigate the effectiveness of a wireless power quality management system that utilizes available power capacities from home appliances, small solar power generators, and electric vehicles which can all be found in residential and smart home applications. The proposed method coordinates active and reactive power support and harmonic control capabilities of both unidirectional converters and bidirectional converters for power quality mitigation. A low-power real-time wireless network will be employed as the communication infrastructure to exchange power quality information between a power quality manager and the converters. Hybrid control for active power, reactive power, and harmonic distortion compensations in these aggregated converters will be the key enabler for this technology. This project will conduct a technology survey, wireless network and supervisory controller design, an experimental verification through proof-of-concept design, and an implementation and feasibility test of reactive power support from home appliances. The proposed research is transformative because it provides a fundamental and highly scalable framework for monitoring, mitigating, and enhancing power quality in residential applications ranging from a single building power system to community-wide and city-wide power systems especially in microgrids employing renewable energy sources, power quality monitoring systems, and smart appliances.