Control of three-phase inverter-based DG system during fault condition without changing protection coordination

• Published in: International journal of electrical power & energy systems 2014-12, Vol.63, p.814-823
• Main Authors: Ebrahimi, Esmaeil, Sanjari, Mohammad Javad, Gharehpetian, Gevork B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Distributed generation; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrical machines; Electrical power engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Fault current limiting; Fault ride through; Miscellaneous; Power electronics, power supplies; Power networks and lines; Protection coordination; Regulation and control; Users connections and in door installation; Voltage source converter
• ISSN: 0142-0615; 1879-3517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijepes.2014.05.058

•Proposed algorithm does not add any additional costs to system.•There is no need for the additional protection systems like adaptive protection system.•The injected current to the network in any fault condition is symmetrical.•The voltage drop, the result of fault occurrence, is compensated by reactive power injection by DG.•DG exists in the network for the permanent and transient faults based on the IEEE standard. Growing utilization of distributed generations in the power system may lead to protection problems. Therefore, in the conventional methods, DGs should be disconnected from the grid in the fault condition. In the case of high penetration of DGs, this strategy leads to voltage sag problem. In this paper, the inverter based DGs are properly controlled in the fault condition instead of disconnecting from the grid. This approach is called fault ride through strategy. The simulation results show that the fault current is kept in the desired range by using the proposed algorithm and the protection coordination before connection of DG remains intact even after the connection of DG. In addition, the voltage sag is improved due to DGs reactive power injection during the fault condition. Moreover, this method has not any additional cost because the proposed control strategy is carried out on the interfaced inverter and there is no need to use additional elements.