Advanced Current-Limiting and Power-Sharing Control in a PV-Based Grid-Forming Inverter under Unbalanced Grid Conditions

Abstract

Grid-forming (GF) inverter technology is a novel and evolving concept for systems with high penetration of renewables. The integration of these grid-independent units with the existing conventional generators and gradually replacing them should contribute to stabilizing the power grid. Several control strategies are proposed in order to design GF inverters to emulate the kinetic energy and the self-synchronization features of synchronous machines with robust control on voltage and frequency to deal with the dynamic issues of the grid. In this article, a photovoltaic (PV)-based GF inverter with a modified virtual synchronous machine control in parallel with a battery supported inverter with an enhanced droop control is considered to operate under non-ideal grid voltage conditions and in the isolated mode of operation. The control methodology encloses a PV synchronous generator, along with the nonlinear feedback linearization current-limiting control with voltage ride-Through capabilities. They enable the GF PV inverter and the grid-following battery inverter to provide active and reactive power to the load during unbalanced grid conditions seamlessly. A hardware cosimulation environment in Simulink using the software tool of Piecewise Linear Electrical Circuit Simulation (PLECS) and System Generator from Xilinx is applied to evaluate the operation of the controller and verify its flexibility and effectiveness in different case studies.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

Center for Research in Energy and Environment (CREE)

Keywords and Phrases

Current-limiting capability; droop control; fault-ride-Through feature; grid-following (GL) inverter; grid-forming (GF) inverter; photovoltaic synchronous generator (PVSG); power-sharing ability; virtual synchronous machine converter

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2168-6777

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2020 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2020

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