Applied Energy 312 (2022) 118784 0306-2619/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. A flter less improved control scheme for active/reactive energy management in fuel cell integrated grid system with harmonic reduction ability Sheikh Tanzim Meraj a , Nor Zaihar Yahaya a , Kamrul Hasan b , M.S. Hossain Lipu c, d, * , Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan e , Aini Hussain d , M.A. Hannan f , Kashem M. Muttaqi g a Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia b School of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Selangor, Malaysia c Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Green University of Bangladesh, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh d Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia e Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai 625015, India f Department of Electrical Power Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia g School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia HIGHLIGHTS • A fuel cell integrated grid system for active/reactive energy management is proposed. • A flter-less PQ (FLPQ) control scheme is developed to achieve optimum energy fow. • FLPQ has improved power quality with better transient response. • FLPQ reduces the cost for the consumers and any additional power losses. A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Power electronics Power quality PQ control power system Renewable energy Fuel cell Microgrid Harmonics ABSTRACT Fuel-cell integrated electrical grid systems are considered the future of energy generation since it is highly energy-effcient and environmentally friendly. However, they are still in the initial phase of implementation and hold some drawbacks that need to be addressed. In fuel cell integrated grid systems, electrical loads usually produce active/reactive power which hampers the nominal operation of the grid system and depreciates the power factor of the system. This condition instigates massive energy loss in the system by generating harmful harmonic components. It also increases the energy demand and thus, the consumers are penalized with excessive bills. The conventional energy management systems in a fuel cell-based grid usually incorporate conventional power flters which are incapable of accurately eliminating harmonic components and unable to compensate reactive power generated by the local loads. Thus, these control systems cannot properly compensate for the energy fow in the grid. To deal with this issue, the current manuscript proposes a new flter-less active/reactive energy management approach that can compensate for reactive powers by accurately eliminating harmonics from the grid system. In this manner, the proposed system can prevent energy loss and enables the consumers to save up on electricity bills. The performance of the proposed system is analyzed under different load conditions and the results are compared with other conventional energy management schemes to verify its superiority. The results from the case studies showed that the proposed control can effectively reduce harmonics from the system and can also keep the power factor of the grid system close to unity. 1. Introduction Renewable energy sources have piqued interest in recent decades * Corresponding author. E-mail address: shahadat@eee.green.edu.bd (M.S. Hossain Lipu). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.118784 Received 18 November 2021; Received in revised form 22 January 2022; Accepted 16 February 2022