Taxonomy of Electric Springs: An enabling Smart Grid technology for effective Demand Side Management

This paper presents excerpts of technical articles published in the field of Electric spring (ES). ES is gradually emerging as a prominent member of smart grid technology for the effective demand side management. It offers stability to the grid by providing reactive and active power support along with power quality enhancement through harmonics mitigation, droop control and reducing the neutral current by reducing imbalance in the system. It offers a good alternate to STATCOM. In ES, the load is bifurcated into two groups based on its criticality and importance so as to act as smart load. ES is connected in series with the noncritical load and collectively this combination is connected across critical load, and hence provide stability to the grid, in the presence of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES). ES incorporated in the load (smart load) can be dispersed at distinct locations and acts in unison without using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in between the two electric springs. Key concepts pertaining to operating aspects of ES, along with its limitations are reviewed.