Band Pass Filter basedActive Island Detection
Technique for PMSGbasedWECS
Suman Murugesan, Student Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical andElectronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Tiruchirappalli, India
sumanmnitt@gmail.com
Abstract—The perpetual developments in the field of power
electronics have endorsed electric power generation at the
distribution system. However, power supply to loads should
be suspended during an unplanned islanding. In this work,
an active islanding detection technique based on disturbance
injection through q-axis current controller is presented which
makes the frequencytovary significantly onpost islandingand
asimpleanalysingmethodisproposedbasedonthecombination
of band pass filter (BPF) and Mean of absolute frequency
variation (AFVmean) for multiple converter interfaced DGs to
discriminate between the islanded and non-islanded conditions.
The simulations are executedinMATLAB R2017b/Simulink.
Index Terms—Unintentional Island Formation, Active Island-
ingDetection, Disturbance Injection, AFVmean
I. Int r o duc t io n
Detection of island formation during unintentional is-
landing is ineluctable and is termed as islanding detection
technique (IDT) [1]-[5].
The IDTs are of two types, Remote and Local IDTs.
Remote IDTs arebasedon communication between the DGs
andthesubstation [6], [7] andhencenot suitablefor lowrated
microgrid, owing to higher investment cost [2]-[4].
Local IDTs are divided into passive and active IDTs.
Passive IDTs are based on analysing the parameters at the
DG output terminal. Voltage unbalances and total harmonic
distortion are the parameters utilized to detect the island
formation in [8]. The rate of change of voltage phase angle
(RoCoVPA) is computedfromthephaseangleobtainedfrom
the phase locked loop of the inverter, and it is used as a
detection index in [9]. But the major drawback of passive
techniques is thenon-detection zone [2]-[4], wherethe IDTs
fail to detect the island formation for less or zero power
mismatch (between supply and load).
Active IDTs add feedback to the control parameters
of the converter or inject disturbance through the DG to
make notable change in frequency, voltage magnitude and
THD etc. The active IDTs based on adding feedback to
the control parameters are implemented in [10], [11]. The
detectionperformancesof activefrequencydrift, improvedslip
modefrequency shift andimproved sandiafrequency shift are
comparedfor multipleinvertersin [10]. Anewactiveislanding
detection methodology based on modified voltage positive
feedback is proposed in [11]. Nonetheless, these techniques
978-1-5386-9316-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Venkatakirthiga Murali, Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical andElectronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Tiruchirappalli, India
mvkirthiga@nitt.edu
unstabilize the system on islanded condition. Active IDTs
basedonsignal injectionhavebeenproposedin [5], [12], [13],
which do not unstabilize the systemon islanded conditions.
The methodproposedin [5] is utilized andvarious analysing
methodologies areproposedin [14]-[16]. Theislanddetection
time is > 200ms in [15], [16] for perfectly matched power
condition (between the DG generation and demand) and the
proposed technique in [14] mal-identifies the non-islanding
condition as islanded condition if the operating frequency is
outside ± 0.5 Hz fromthenominal frequency.
In this context, q-axis current perturbation based active
IDT is adopted and an analysing method based on the com-
bination of BPF and AFVmean is proposed in this work to
discriminate the islanding fromnon-islanding conditions for
permanent magnet synchronousgenerator (PMSG) basedwind
energyconversionsystem(WECS). Theadvantagesof thepro-
posedmethodareasfollows: applicabletoanyconverter based
DGs, applicable to varying demands, adaptive threshold for
varyingdemandsisnot needed, doesnot destabilizethesystem
onpost islanding, accurateandfaster islanding detectionthan
earlier worksbasedonq-axis current disturbanceinjectionetc.
II. Test Syst em Desc r ipt io n
The test systemadopted for this work is shown in Fig. 1.
Thetest systemencompassespermanent magnet synchronous
generator based wind energy conversion system interfaced
to the utility grid at the point of common coupling (PCC)
through uncontrolled three phase diode bridge rectifier, DC-
DCconverter, inverter andinductor filter (Lf) with resistance
(Rf) and parallel RLC load connected at the same PCC.
The resonant tuned load is considered as the worst loading
condition [17], and hence the same is adopted in this work.
The test systemspecifications aredepictedin Table I.
III. Ac t iv e Is l a nding Det ec t io n
It is observedthat thefrequency variation onpost islanding
isnot significant whenthegenerationmatchesthedemandand
hence most of the passive islanding detection techniques fail
[18].
In order to make a significant variation in frequency of
the voltage at PCCon post islanding, adisturbance signal is
injected through the q-axis controller, which assists to detect
 Fig. 1. Schematic diagramof thetest system

TABLE I frequency anddisturbance frequency respectively.

Test Syst emSpecif icat ions
= -tan 1( R (uiC---L ) ) = 1, 2 (3)
Parameter Value Parameter Value
1
fo 50 Hz Pwind 1MW Z0 1 (4)
Vrms 0.4 kV Qf 2.5
Vdc 0.8 kV R 160 mQ
fsw 7.9 kHz Load Component L 204 ¡dH R)d+ ( - - à f i 5
Rf 1m,Q C 49.74 mF i
Lf 410 /dH f dist 20 Hz Zi = T = 1, 2 (5)

'R y ^ - ¿ l ^ 2
21
island formation. The frequency of the voltage signal at PCC The block diagramof the q-axis current controller with
is obtainedby phase locked loop and it is analysedto detect disturbance injection is shown in Fig. 2.
and distinguish between islanding and non-islanding events.
The magnitude of the disturbance signal is considered as 1%
of ratedd-axis current at 20Hz frequency for this work [18].
The output current of the inverter in dq components
including the disturbance injection through q-axis controller
is given asfollows,
ldist
id idref (1)
iqref + idr sin(ud't) Fig. 2. Block diagram of the q-axis current controller with disturbance
. iq _ injection

The dq0current components areconvertedto abc current where, idist idr sin(udt)-
components by dq0 to abc transformation, and the instan-
taneous per phase voltage is measured and observed. The IV. Pr oposed Ana l ysing Met ho do l o g y
variation of frequency of the PCCvoltage dueto the current Due to the injected disturbance signal, the measured fre-
disturbance on the islanded systemdepends on the following quency of thePCCvoltage signal varies significantly onpost
equation: islanding. Inordertoconfirmwhetherthesystemisislandedor
not, aneffectiveanalysingtechniqueis essential. Inthis work,
va Z0idsin(u0t)+Z1idrsin(u1t+d1)+Z2idrsin(u2t+dd) ananalysingtechniqueis proposedbasedonthecombination
(2) of Band Pass Filter (second order filter) and computation
U0 2f ui =2 nfi, u = 2nf2 of Mean of Absolute Frequency Variation (AFVmean). The
corresponding equations aregiven as follows:
where, 2juds
/i andf2represent thesumanddifferenceof thefundamental H(s) s2+ 2&ds + ud (6)

2
 Fig. 3. Block diagramof theproposed analysing methodology

where, s=Laplaceoperator, £=dampingratio=0.707, f d = intentional delay helps to discriminate the transients as non-
20 Hz (frequency of the disturbance signal which is injected islanding fromthe islanding condition.
through the q-axis controller). Bandwidth of the band pass
filter is given by the expression 2£fd. V. Case St udies
In this section, the effectiveness of theproposedmethodis
AFVmean(t) = 3 \AFV(t) | dt (7) for thaetete
valid d for various islanding and non-islanding conditions
st systemshown in Fig. 1.
T t-T
The deviation of frequency of the voltage signal onpost- A. IslandedCondition (Exactlypower matchedcondition)
islanding for exactly matched power condition is simulated Theproposedmethodistestedfor aconditionwheretheDG
for various load quality factors and are investigated. The isolateswithloadat exactlypower matchedconditionbetween
AFVmean is obtained by the simulations for exact power thegenerationandthedemand. Thegridisdisconnectedat 0.6
matchedconditions of DGgenerationandtheloadfor various s and the responses of various signals are monitored for the
loadqualityfactors. Thechangeinfrequencyonpost islanding exactly matchedpower condition and shown in Fig. 4.
condition is almost the same for any particular load quality
factor for any equally rated DG and load. The 95%of the
magnitude of AFVmean is chosen as threshold for safety (a)
50.2
purpose. Thethresholdcorrespondingtotheloadof Qf = 2.5
ischosenascommonfor all theloadQf valuesof < 2.5, since & 50.1
thevariation of frequency for theloads of Qf < 2.5 ishigher S'
thanthefrequencyvariationfor theloadof Qf = 2.5. It avoids g o*
50.0
the needof adaptivethreshold for varying demands for loads i 49.9
of Qf < 2.5. The AFVmean values and their thresholds for
various Qf values aretabulatedin Table II. 49.8
^ 0.08
TABLE II ^ - 0.06
Thr eshol d f or var ious qual it y fact or s s
g0.04
^> 0.02
Qf AFV Mean (Hz) Threshold (Hz)
2.5 0.0393 0.0373
1.8 0.0482 0.0458 0.00
1.2 (c)
1 0.0641 0.0609
0.5 0.0823 0.0782
f>
cz5
0.8
G
Theblock diagramof theproposedmethodis depictedin ■oS 0.4
Fig. 3. The intentional time delay of 90 ms is chosen based nu
Q 0.0
on simulations to avoid the mal-identification of transient
condition as anislanded event. 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
The frequency of the voltage waveformon pre and post Time(s)
islanding condition varies based on eqn. (2). In eqn. (2),
only thetermZ0idsin(w0t) is effectiveduring grid connected Fig. 4. Responses of exactly matchedpower condition
operation. However, on post islanding condition the voltage
waveformvaries basedon eqn. (2), so as the frequency. The It is inferred fromthe Fig. 4, that during grid connected

3
mode of operation, the change in frequency due to the dis- (a)
turbance injection is unremarkable due to the presence of
low impedance path offered by the grid and only during
the islanded mode of operation the frequency variation is
significant. The islandformation is detectedwithin 180ms as
shown in Fig. 4 (c), which is much lesser than the detection
time mentioned in the IEEE standard 1547.4 of 2s.
B. Non-islanding Conditions
Inthis section, theproposedmethodisinvestigatedfor vari-
ousnon-islandingconditionssuchasgridfrequencyvariations,
different loadswitchingeventsandwindvelocity variationsto
verify the robustness towards variations on load, source and
grid side.
1) Gridfrequency variations: The distribution systems are
prone to abrupt frequency variations due to various reasons.
Inthis section, theefficacy of theproposedmethodis verified
for abrupt changes in grid frequency. The time instants of
the abrupt change in grid frequency of the voltage signal are
tabulatedinTableIII. Theresponsesaremonitoredandplotted
in Fig. 5.
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
TABLE III Time(s)
Time inst ant s of abr upt changes in gr id f r equency
Fig. 5. Responses of proposed analysing methodology for grid frequency
Grid frequency variations fluctuations
Time instant (s)
From(Hz) To (Hz)
50 49.3 0.7
49.3 50.5 1
50.5 50 1.3

Although, the computedAFVmean valueexceedsthresh-

old for the grid frequency variations at 0.7, 1.0 and 1.3
s, it falls below the threshold within 90 ms. Hence, this
is distinguished as a non-islanded event by the proposed
methodology.
2) Load switching events: Load switching events arepre-
dominant in the distributions systems and hence it becomes
inevitable to test the effectiveness of the proposedmethodol-
ogy for suchoperatingconditions. Thevarious loadswitching
events aredepictedin Table IV. Theresponses aremonitored
andplotted in Fig. 6.
TABLE IV
Var ious l oad swit ching event s
Load Type Power Rating Switched ON (s) SwitchedOFF(s)
Resistive 1MW 0.75 0.95
Inductive 1MVAR 1.15 1.35
Capacitive 1MVAR 1.55 1.75 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 12 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8
Time(s)
Even though, the AFVmean is higher than threshold for Fig. 6. Responses of proposed analysing methodology for load switching
switching event at 1.55 s in Fig. 6, it doesn’t sustain for 90 events

4
ms. Hence, that is discriminated as anon-islanded condition condition. Theproposedtechniquedistinguishes theislanding
by theproposedmethod. andnon-islanding conditions accurately.
3) Uncertainties in wind velocity: The wind velocity is VI. Co nc l usio n
intermittent in nature. The change in wind velocity results in In this work, q-axis disturbance injection basedactive IDT
change in output power supplied to the grid and causes fre-
quency fluctuations at thePCC. Hence, theproposedmethod- is of
adoptedandananalysingmethodbasedonthecombination
band pass filter and computation of mean of absolute
ologyisverifiedfor suchanoperatingconditioninthissection.
The wind velocity is varied drastically from 12m/s to 7 m/s Theupero
freq ncy variation is proposed for PMSG based WECS.
at 0.7 and linearly from7 m/s to 11 m/s from 1.0 to 1.2 s detect thpeose dmethodovercomestheearlier shortcomings and
isla ndformation faster thantheearlier works based
respectively. Thechangeinpower andthefrequencyvariations
areplotted in Fig. 7. o n q-a xis cu rrent disturbanceinjection. Theproposedmethod
discriminates the islanding fromthenon-islanding conditions
accurately, does not unstablizethe systemon islanded condi-
tion, is suitablefor varyingdemandsfor theloadsof Qf < 2.5
and compatible for any converter based DGs. The island
detection time is within 180 ms for any load of Qf < 2.5.
The proposed method is extendible to multiple DGs at the
samepoint of common coupling without any modifications in
thecontrol circuitry. Anexperimental setupisbeingdeveloped
to validatetheproposedtechnique as anextension.
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