Energy Distribution and Generation

Energy 1
Distribution Energy Generation
(By)
The Name of the Class (Course)
Professor (Tutor)
The Name of the School (University)
The City and State where it is located
The Date

Energy 2
Distribution Electricity Generation Definition
Generally, Distributed Generation points at grid-connected or stand-alone modular, small devices
for generating electricity which is found close to the consumption point. The important definition
lies in characterizing the DG technologies according to the technology sizes of power
production, the application and the location of the device used (Pratap et al. 2018). These DG
systems are found near power demand areas such as the consumer side, and not on the
transmission network (Gharehpetian & Mohammad, 2017).
Hence, DG entails numerous technologies for use which include non-renewable and renewable
energy sources as shown in table 1 below.
Technology Description
Wind Uses large wind turbines able to directly convert wind energy to
electricity.
Solar Photovoltaic Often roof-mounted panels able to produce electricity from
daylight.
Micro-Hydro These are instruments that are able to tap flowing water’s power,
converting it to electricity.
Micro-Wind These are smaller wind turbines that are able to produce
electricity mostly roof-mounted.
Waste/Biomass Their installation has arranged of 100kW to 18MWth.

Energy 3
The DG Technologies Used
1. Wind Turbines
The wind turbines connected to the grid are effective sources of DG which are operational at
variable or nearly constant speed with coupling to induction motors for power production
(Nezihi et al. 2015). Induction generators, squirrel cage type, are tapped to the power system
using a power electronic interface like in the diagram below.
Fig 1 (Rugthaicharoencheep & Auchariyamet, 2012) connecting induction generators, squirrel
cage type to AC grid
2. Photovoltaic System
This module has an unregulated DC source of power requiring treatment and conditioning before
making a connection to the power systems (Mahmoud & AL-Sunni, 2015). The output of the PV
array is connected to a chopper to produce maximum power tracking as shown in the diagram
below:

Energy 4
Fig 2 (Rugthaicharoencheep & Auchariyamet, 2012) Connecting PV to AC grid
These energy forms are renewable. Additionally, they can improve the service reliability by
decreasing the system’s outage numbers with avoidance of extending lines of power to remote
areas (Sioshansi, 2014).
3. Fuel Cell
This is a device generating electricity through a chemical reaction. Fuel cells have 2 electrodes,
an anode and a cathode (Staffell et al. 2015). The electricity is produced at the electrodes and an
electrolyte carrying electrically charged particles. Additionally, there is a catalyst that hastens the
electrodes’ reactions. Mostly hydrogen becomes the basic fuel combined with oxygen. These
fuels produce fewer pollutant products. They produce DC power that should be converted into
A.C with the use of DC/AC inverter (Abu-Rub et al. 2014). The DC output is changed to A.C
using the inverter to the grid as shown below:
Fig 3 (Rugthaicharoencheep & Auchariyamet, 2012) connecting fuel to AC grid