Control of Photovoltaic Systems for Enhanced Short-Term Voltage Stability and Recovery

• Published in: IEEE transactions on energy conversion Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 243 - 254
• Main Authors: Lammert, Gustav, Premm, Daniel, Ospina, Luis David Pabon, Boemer, Jens C., Braun, Martin, Van Cutsem, Thierry
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Control stability; Control systems; dynamic grid support; dynamic reactive power support; Dynamic stability; Electrical & electronics engineering; Engineering, computing & technology; fault ride-through; Fault-induced delayed voltage recovery; Frequency stability; induction motors; Ingénierie électrique & électronique; Ingénierie, informatique & technologie; large-scale photovoltaic plants; Load modeling; Low voltage; Numerical stability; Photovoltaic cells; Power system dynamics; Power system stability; Reactive power; Recovery; Solar cells; Stability analysis; Stability criteria; Stability tests; Test systems; Voltage control; Voltage stability
• ISSN: 0885-8969; 1558-0059
• DOI: 10.1109/TEC.2018.2875303

This paper investigates the impact of: 1) the Low Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT) and Dynamic Voltage Support (DVS) capability; 2) the active current recovery rate; 3) the local voltage control; and 4) the plant-level voltage control of large-scale PhotoVoltaic (PV) systems on Short-Term (ST) voltage stability and Fault-Induced Delayed Voltage Recovery (FIDVR). Moreover, the influence on transient and frequency stability is studied briefly. To evaluate FIDVR, a novel metric, the so-called Voltage Recovery Index (VRI), is defined. The studies are performed with the WECC generic PV system model on an IEEE voltage stability test system, namely the Nordic test system. The results show that without LVRT capability the system is ST voltage and transient unstable. Only the LVRT and DVS capability help to avoid ST voltage and transient instability. Considering voltage and frequency dynamics, an active current recovery rate of 100%/s shows the best performance. To further enhance voltage dynamics, plant-level voltage control together with local coordinated reactive power/voltage control should be applied. Moreover, the VRI provides useful information about the FIDVR and helps to compare different ST voltage controls.