Grid Faults Impact on PVs
Grid Faults Impact on Three-Phase Photovoltaic Systems
The work starts with a short overview of grid requirements for photovoltaic (PV) systems and control structures of grid-connected PV power systems. Advanced control strategies for PV power systems are presented next, in order to enhance the integration of this technology. The aim of this work is to investigate the response of the three-phase PV systems during symmetrical and asymmetrical grid faults. The performance of a three-phase grid-connected PV system under grid faults is investigated by performing simulations in Matlab and Simulink for a typical medium voltage (MV) distribution system, taking into account the factors of ambient temperature and solar irradiance, grid codes, power control strategies and utility grid conditions.
Our findings show that the PV array, the PV inverter and the point of common coupling (PCC) of the grid-connected PV system are perturbed by grid fault events. The impact of grid faults on PV systems depends on the fault type and less on the fault distance. Thus, symmetrical faults have a higher impact on PV systems performance than asymmetrical faults, both at the PCC and inside the grid-connected PV array.
In order to analyze the PV system during faults on utility power grid and to determine the effects of faults as a function of the location where the fault occurs, the simulation results are presented starting from the PCC, followed by the voltage source converter (VSC) and boost converter and continuing with the PV array. The response and the comparison of the three-phase PV system operation during various types of short circuit grid faults such as symmetrical grid faults (three-phase faults) and unsymmetrical grid faults (unbalanced faults) are discussed and presented graphically.
Please cite my paper in your work:
I. V. Banu and M. Istrate, "Study on three-phase photovoltaic systems under grid faults," 2014 International Conference and Exposition on Electrical and Power Engineering (EPE), Iasi, 2014, pp. 1132-1137.
doi: 10.1109/ICEPE.2014.6970086
URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6970086&isnumber=6969853