An apparatus and method for aggregating and supplying energy includes a plurality of power modules for inverting a first type of electrical power, which is supplied to the power modules from multiple sources of power, to a second type of electrical power at an output of the power modules for delivery of the inverted power to a storage device for future use, or to an electrical load, or to a regional or central utility grid. A microcontroller (the power microcontroller) is carried by and incorporated within each of the power modules and each is configured for controlling the power inversion operations. The power microcontrollers are configured for generating, from each of the plurality of power modules, controlled pulses of charge and discharge for increasing storage capacity of the energy storage device. A control module is also connected with the plurality of power modules. A microcontroller (the control microcontroller) carried by the control module is configured for monitoring voltage levels within the at least one energy storage device and for rebalancing voltage within the energy storage device and for correcting lead and lag power factor. Sensors are positioned in contact with the energy storage device continually sensing its voltage levels and are in communication with the control microcontroller for supplying sensed data thereto. Means for selectively supplying power received from said multiple disparate sources of power to said destination.

A var compensator circuit is provided. The var compensator circuit includes a gas tube switch and a reactive impedance. The gas tube switch is configured to be coupled to a transmission line. The transmission line is configured to deliver real power and reactive power to a load at an alternating current (AC) line voltage. The reactive impedance is configured to be coupled to the transmission line at the AC line voltage through the gas tube switch. The reactive impedance is configured to modify the reactive power configured to be delivered to the load.

The present disclosure relates a reactive power compensation system including a detection unit for acquiring loading state information of a plurality of loads, a reactive power compensation unit for compensating reactive power, and a controller for controlling the reactive power compensation unit to perform flicker compensation or power factor compensation based on a control signal according to the loading state information.

It is proposed herein to employ thyristor firing angles as a fast prediction of flicker in power supply for an electric arc furnace. It is further proposed to actively modify operating variables for the electric arc furnace to maintain the flicker below a predefined threshold. Aspects of the present application use the thyristor firing angles in combination with control ranges of variable reactance devices to predict the flicker severity level generated by the electric arc furnace with thyristor-controlled variable reactance devices. Based on the predicted flicker level, at least one operating variable of the electric arc furnace may be changed, if required, to maintain flicker to acceptable limit.

A continuously variable saturable shunt reactor includes a laminated core having two wound limbs for each phase connected by yokes. A network winding branch is disposed on each limb, high-voltage ends of winding branches of a phase are connected to a phase conductor and low-voltage ends of winding branches are connected to a DC voltage source, to reduce power of the DC voltage sources, degree of distortion of the operating current and control error, and to reduce the number of DC voltage sources. The DC voltage source includes two stabilized, single-pole-grounded power converters with opposite polarities and two electronic transistor changeover switches controlled by a control system, for each phase. The control system feeds direct current to the winding branches of a phase in pulses using the switches and the direct current is fed into the winding branches at opposite poles from different power converters.

A control apparatus in a static VAR compensator (SVC) system includes a plurality of current supply units for supplying phase currents configuring three-phase current of a power system, a plurality of current sensors for measuring the phase currents, and a controller for determining whether unbalance occurs in the three-phase current based on the phase currents, calculating an error corresponding to the unbalance according to the phase currents if unbalance occurs, and individually controlling at least one of the plurality of current supply units so as to compensate for the error.

A high-efficiency system for conducting power factor (PF) and harmonics correction in an electrical network, comprising a controller; a digital PFC capacitor array comprising two or more passive PFC capacitors, providing fine steps increments in the PF correction; and linear PFC capacitor arrays, providing coarse steps increments in the PF correction. The PF correction in coarse steps increments and fine steps increments allow a total or near total PF correction without overcompensation. Optionally, the system further comprises a lower power active power filter (APF) configured to only target and eliminate or minimize harmonics in the electrical network.

A hybrid-STATCOM for providing compensating reactive power required by a load, the hybrid-STATCOM comprising: a TCLC part for each electric power phase, each TCLC part comprising: a coupling inductor; a power filter capacitor; and a thyristor-controlled reactor connected in series with a power filter inductor; and an active inverter part comprising: a voltage source inverter for each electric power phase; and a DC-link capacitor connected in parallel with the voltage source inverters. The control strategy of the hybrid-STATCOM is separated into two parts: TCLC part control and Active inverter part control. The TCLC part control is based on the instantaneous pq theory and aims to compensate the loading reactive power with the controllable TCLC part impedance. The active inverter part control is based on the instantaneous active and reactive current i.sub.d-i.sub.q method and aims to improve the overall performance of the hybrid-STATCOM under different voltage and current conditions.

Methods and systems for stabilizing a power system include receiving a set point for a power system that includes the compensation circuitry controlled by the control system. A firing angle for the power system is set based at least in part on the set point. An angle between a generator terminal of a generator of the power system and a bus of the power system is calculated. A determination is made whether the angle is within a threshold value of the firing angle. When the angle is not within the threshold value of the firing angle, compensation circuitry is engaged to stabilize the power system.

A thyristor controlled LC (TCLC) compensator for compensating dynamic reactive power in a power grid system, with an advantage of mitigating harmonic current injection from solid-state switches during switching on or off is provided. Exemplarily, the TCLC compensator is shunt-connected to the three-phase power grid and comprises an electronic controller, a coupling inductor (L.sub.c), a first branch of circuit with a parallel inductor (L.sub.PF) and a solid-state switch, and a second branch of circuit with a parallel capacitor (C.sub.PF), wherein the coupling inductor (L.sub.c) is connected in series with a parallel combination of the first and second branch of circuit. The electronic controller for the TCLC compensator is configured in accordance to the generalized instantaneous reactive power theory for improving the response speed instead of using traditional average reactive power concept.