Contribution Determination for Multiple Unbalanced Sources at the Point of Common Coupling

Abstract

Three-phase unbalance is an important power quality issue that can cause many negative effects to the power system. Effective mitigation and management of voltage unbalance will benefit from the knowledge of how the unbalanced sources contribute to the voltage asymmetry at the point of evaluation (POE). In this paper, a method is proposed to assess the overall unbalance contribution of the multiple unbalanced sources at the point of common coupling (PCC). Firstly, the equivalent circuit for analysis is established and the unbalance contribution indices are proposed. Then a method is proposed to determine whether the dominant unbalanced polluter is at the upstream or downstream of POE. If the main unbalanced source is identified to be downstream of POE, a procedure is further proposed to determine the individual contribution of the multiple unbalanced sources. Moreover, for the multiple unbalanced source condition, the current flowing in each feeder is proposed to be used for the contribution estimation instead of the current actually emitted by the unbalanced source. Finally, a method is proposed to estimate the equivalent negative sequence impedance of the aggregate loads. Simulation and field analysis results validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the method.