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Satisfying fault ride-through requirements, solar photovoltaic (PV) plant remains connected to the grid even during a fault. With current limiting feature, the plant current during a fault becomes comparable to its rated current. This imposes challenges to conventional local data-based protection methods employed in the relay on PV-side. In such a situation, the selectivity of a protection scheme is crucial for maintaining an uninterrupted supply to customers. In this article, a q-axis component-based protection scheme is proposed for the distribution system with a PV plant. The method extracts the second-order harmonic components of q-axis voltage and current at relaying point for fault detection and direction identification. Using this direction information at both ends of a line segment to be protected, internal and external faults are discriminated. The performance of the proposed method is tested on 14-bus distribution system for various fault cases. A comparative analysis with existing techniques shows the strength of the proposed method. Hardware-in-loop testing using OPAL-RT simulator as system and Arduino NANO microcontroller as relay validates the performance of the proposed method in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For fault ride-through requirement, solar photovoltaic (PV) plant remains connected to the grid during a fault. In such a situation, a PV plant operates in different modes and supplies current to comply with the requirements of the grid. The relative magnitude of phase current contributed by a PV plant during a fault is at par with the nominal current. Such a fault behavior restricts the application of available phase current based relaying approaches while protecting the distribution system with a PV plant. A protection method using local positive sequence voltage and current is proposed to protect a distribution system with PV plant. The method selects pickup current using proposed current-voltage curve for fault detection. A three-dimensional time-current-voltage characteristic is proposed for trip time calculation. Performance of the proposed method is tested for relays on both PV plant side and grid end using DigSilent PowerFactory simulation data for a CIGRE 14-bus distribution system with PV plant having different modes of operations. The method is found to be accurate and comparative assessment reveals its superiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distribution lines are generally protected by overcurrent relays. With the integration of an inverter-interfaced solar photovoltaic (PV) plant having a current-limiting feature, the fault current seen by the relay on the PV side of that feeder becomes comparable to the load current. The conventional overcurrent relaying principle is not suitable for distribution line protection. Distance relay may be a viable option for protection of distribution lines connecting the solar PV plant. However, positive- and negative-sequence source impedances of the PV plant depend on an inverter controller, which results in limited performance of fixed setting distance relay. This article proposes an adaptive distance relay setting to protect distribution line connecting the PV plant, using prefault voltage and current data at the relaying point. The method calculates positive- and negative-sequence PV source impedances for boundary setting of distance relay at the PV side. The proposed trip boundary is modified adaptively with the change in prefault conditions of the PV plant. Performance of the proposed method is tested for different control strategies and operating capacities of the PV plant and variation in the grid source impedance on a 34-bus distribution system. Real-time application of the proposed method is validated in hardware-in-the-loop using OPAL-RT simulators with IEC 61850 as the communication protocol and found to be accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes modeling and two controller design techniques for a triple active bridge (TAB) three-port dc–dc converter comprising of fuel cell, battery, and load. The sources are integrated, employing boost interleaved full-bridge converters in order to get smoother source current profile. The converter is a nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system with a large number of control variables. Moreover, a high degree of coupling among the control variables makes its modeling and control system design quite cumbersome and complex. To overcome the complexity of analysis in a higher order system like TAB, a generalized frequency-domain modeling technique is introduced in this article. A new decoupling matrix-based proportional-integral controller design method is also proposed. It reduces the design complexity and improves the system dynamic performance (lower settling time, overshoot/undershoot in the controlled variables) in comparison to similar three-port converters reported in the literature. Further, the performance of the proposed controller is compared by simulation with another popular MIMO system controller design technique, namely the state feedback control. A 1-kW laboratory prototype is built and tested to verify the system performance during dynamic load changes, source current variation, and battery charging/discharging operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript develops a unified control structure for Distributed Generation (DG) units based on Voltage Source Converters considering unbalanced and non-linear operating conditions. This control structure works for both the Islanded and the Grid-connected modes of operation of the Micro-Grid (MG). The objective of this control scheme is to regulate the line currents of the DG unit in such a manner that the voltage at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) remains balanced despite the line currents of the DG unit being unbalanced and distorted. Multiple adaptive P-R controllers have been proposed for the current control loop of the Voltage Source Converter (VSC). These controllers have been implemented with resettable integrators so as to limit the DC components in the post fault current of the VSC. The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is interfaced to the DC link of the VSC through bi-directional dc-dc converters. An improved control structure for the bi-directional dc-dc converter has been developed. The effectiveness of these control structures have been presented and tested in PSCAD/EMTDC in an IEEE 34 node distribution system model being fed by two identical DG units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distribution system possesses high resistance to reactance ratio and unbalanced load profile. Introduction of power electronic devices such as solar photovoltaic (PV) inverter in the distribution system leads to power imbalance and unregulated voltage profile at the point of common coupling (PCC) because these devices having low‐voltage ride through feature remain connected to grid during fault and inject balanced current to unbalanced fault. Also, high PV integration may increase the voltage at PCC beyond its desired limit. To overcome such unbalanced conditions and to maintain voltage at PCC, a positive, negative and zero sequence‐based current controller with reactive power compensation is proposed in this work. The sequence controller controls the sequence currents to their reference command. DC‐link voltage regulator, reactive power compensator and PCC voltage regulator decide the references for sequence currents. The proposed reactive power compensator uses both positive sequence voltage at PCC and reactive power supplied by the filter capacitor to generate the reactive power reference value. Feedforward and feedback actions are involved in the controller to produce switching pulses for inverter. The proposed method is tested in OPAL‐RT for real‐time validation using IEEE 13 bus distribution system model and found to be accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the positive-sequence, negative-sequence, and zero-sequence voltage and current control schemes in the dq frame for the voltage-source converter (VSC)-based distributed generation (DG) units in order to compensate for voltage unbalance in a microgrid. The objective of these schemes is to control the positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components (separately and independently) of the voltage at the point of common coupling and the VSC currents to their respective reference commands. Dynamically varying limits have been proposed for the positive- and negative-sequence references for the current control schemes in order to protect the VSC from overloading (under unbalanced conditions) and unsymmetrical faults. The active power control, frequency control, and the reactive power–voltage droop control schemes decide the references of the positive-sequence voltage control scheme in order to fulfill the objective of using the same control schemes for the grid-connected and the islanded modes of operation of the microgrid, thereby eliminating the need for islanding detection. The performance of the various control schemes employed for controlling the VSC-based DG unit has been tested on two identical VSC-based DG units feeding power to the IEEE 34 node distribution network implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]