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This paper presents a new control scheme for the enhancement of the low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability of doubly fed induction generators. The LVRT capability is provided by extending the range of operation of the controlled system to include typical postfault conditions. Controllers are designed simultaneously for both the rotor- and grid-side converters using a linear quadratic output-feedback decentralized control strategy. The nonlinear terms in the power system model are represented in this paper by an uncertain term derived from the Cauchy remainder of the Taylor series expansion. A genetic algorithm is used to calculate the bound on the uncertainty. The robust controller resulting from this design provides acceptable performances to enhance voltage and transient stability margins and thereby to limit the oscillations, the peak value of the rotor current, and the dc-link voltage fluctuations. The performance of the designed controller is demonstrated under different operating conditions by large-disturbance simulations on a test system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In distribution power systems line transposition is not a common practice and phase loading levels are always changing. Therefore, perfect balance is never achieved at a distribution level. Non-transposed lines can cause unequal voltage drops between phases and this may be further exacerbated by uneven loads in each phase. Consequently, the voltage magnitude of a certain phase may suffer a severe decrease, breaching the lower voltage limit or unbalanced three-phase voltages at a remote bus may violate the percentage voltage imbalance accepted in the standards. This paper examines the mechanism of causing uneven voltage drops and investigates the impacts of unbalanced line configurations with different phase loading levels on network voltage imbalance. Methodologies are proposed to analyze voltage drops affected by line and load imbalance. Based on these methods, general guidelines are recommended to mitigate the voltage problems, which are useful for network analysis, planning and reconfiguration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a new approach for classification and localization of voltage sags triggered by symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults in electricity networks. The proposed method utilizes five unique parameters of three-dimensional (3-D) polarization ellipse (PE) obtained from the mapping of three-phase voltage signals in 3-D coordinates. The decision boundaries, which are set by the parametric equations exploiting the five ellipse parameters, namely, elevation, azimuth, tilt angles, semi-major axis, and semi-minor axis, are used to classify the fault-initiated sags. The localization of faults is conducted from the parametric equations demonstrating the variation of ellipse parameters with respect to distance from the fault-location. These parametric equations would be helpful to make decision faster and thereby, eliminate the uncertainty in decision-making process. The applicability of the proposed method is tested and validated using real data measured by DOE/EPRI, the recorded waveforms of IEEE 1159.2 Working Group, and the data extracted from the simulation of faults at several feeders of IEEE 14-bus test system using RSCAD and Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of photovoltaic (PV) technology, more utility-scale PV systems are being integrated into rural areas where abundant and low-cost land is available. In these areas, step-voltage regulators (SVRs) with an open-delta configuration are widely used for voltage regulation. However, since SVRs were initially designed for tackling slow and smooth load variations, frequent PV output fluctuations can cause excessive tap changes. Moreover, rural communication facilities are normally expensive and underdeveloped, so only limited parameters are recorded with low resolution and reliability. Thus, much needed tap information cannot be properly monitored in a cost-effective way. In contrast, a downstream load center or utility-scale PV site is commonly well equipped with modern sensors and data acquisition systems, which provide the possibility for tap evaluation. Therefore, this paper proposes a new remote tap position estimation approach to accurately assess the upstream tap positions of open-delta SVRs from downstream measurements. Furthermore, the proposed approach is firmly validated through field testing under the support of the local utility and PV plant owner. This novel method not only enables reliable tap position monitoring with high precision for utilities to research PV–SVR interaction, but also provides valuable information to PV owners for correctly analyzing downstream voltage performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The proposed method can solve voltage issues and enable higher PV penetration. • PV imbalance makes traditional methods less effective on overvoltage mitigation. • A joint centralized-decentralized method is developed for unbalanced PV scenarios. • The new approach controls fast PV fluctuations in a coordinated and distributed way. Due to random connection of small-size single-phase rooftop photovoltaic (PV) generators in residential areas, low voltage distribution systems tend to have unbalanced PV integration across phases. In such situations, traditional reactive power compensation methods may cause unintended Voltage-Reactive Power responses across phases due to line coupling, which consequently affects their effectiveness on overvoltage mitigation. Such overvoltage problems significantly hinder the future integration of clean and renewable solar energy resources in power networks. In this paper, the limitations of traditional methods in PV imbalance scenarios are revealed and comprehensively analyzed by a voltage sensitivity method for the first time. On this basis, an innovative joint centralized-decentralized method is developed to overcome the PV imbalance-induced voltage regulation challenge. Specifically, the inverter's reactive power response to PV power variations in different phases is adaptively scheduled in order to avoid adverse effect of inter-phase Voltage-Reactive Power interaction on voltage regulation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by time-series simulations with recorded data and a real-life low voltage distribution system in Australia. With the traditional method (i.e. power factor droop control strategy), 93 minutes' overvoltage can be observed in the case study, which will trigger overvoltage protection and disconnect PV inverters from the grid. While, the proposed method can always control the system voltage within the allowable range, and it consequently avoids PV disconnection. By solving this bottleneck issue, more PV systems can be integrated into distribution networks, which consequently contributes to CO 2 emission reduction in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]