DESIGN, SIZING AND SIMULATION OF A HYBRID AC-DC MICROGRID FOR IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN RESIDENTIAL APPLICATIONS

Renewable energy resources have been integrated to the electricity generation industry. Those systems usually require the addition of energy storage units, so microgrids have been proposed to simplify analysis of such complex energy systems. Hybrid AC-DC microgrids use both AC and DC buses in order to reduce power conversion losses due to the AC and DC nature of house loads, so residential buildings became an interesting application field. A hybrid AC-DC microgrid composed of a PV generator, two storage units, AC and DC loads is proposed, which also can connect with the main grid. Power and control subsystems for the converters of the microgrid are described, then load and PV profiles are employed to size generating and storage units of the microgrid. Besides that, simulations under maximum generation and demand events are analyzed, as well as improvement in power efficiency when compared to a traditional AC microgrid.