Voltage fed control of distributed power generation inverters with inherent service to grid stability

Abstract

In many countries the percentage of power electronic interfaced power sources (PEIPS), especially renewable energies like wind power and photovoltaic (PV), has increased significantly during the last decade.Retaining system stability with a declining number of conventional synchronous generators is a new challenge that starts to be addressed by Grid Operators. The existing control schemes used in distributed energy generation inverters generally do not provide significant services to grid stability. This paper focuses on a control scheme that is in many ways similar to the control of conventional power plants, but avoids a higher rating of the inverters which is often required by control approaches emulating the response of a synchronous generator. The control parameters of the proposed scheme are derived analytically and their main dependencies from major system parameters are discussed. An add-on to achieve fault ride through capability for both balanced and unbalanced faults for voltage controlled inverters is presented. Model validation results in a laboratory setup show very good correlation and have proven practicability of the theory as well as fault ride through and islanding capability.