Fault Ride-Through Enhancement Capability

in Grid Connected PV Systems

by

Eng/ Atef Mohamed Abd El Razek

Supervised by

Prof/Mostafa Marei Ass Prof/ Osama Arafa

Dr/ Ibrahim Abdallah Dr/ Ghada Ahmed

 Contents
 introduction

 Fault types

 The need for Fault Ride-Through

 Fault-ride through techniques

 Fault detection methods

 Plan outline
 Renewable Energy Installed Capacity Worldwide
in (GW)

)Source: IRENA - Renewable Capacity Statistics 2017(

(Source: IRENA - Renewable Capacity Statistics 2017)
 Global-pv-capacity-expected-reach-969gw-2025

/https://www.power-technology.com/comment/global-pv-capacity-expected-reach-969gw-2025
Global Wind generation installed capacity

GW
 Fault Types

asymmetrical/ unbalanced symmetrical/balanced

fault fault
Fault types
 Fault Ride Through

GCPAs should:

• Remain connected to the grid during voltage sags for a specific period of
time.

• support the grid voltage by injecting reactive current.

 Characteristics of FRT Strategies
Fundamentally, the LVRT control strategies for grid-connected PV systems under
abnormal conditions should :

(1) quickly detect voltage faults;

(2) calculate active and reactive current references in the Positive Sequence (PS)
and Negative Sequence (NS);

(3) prevent overcurrent failure (limit current);

(4) control the dc-link voltage;

(5) control the dc-dc converter (in two-stage systems).

 Standards for LVRT
JEAC 9701 (Japan)

GB/T 19964(China) low voltage

high voltage
 Standards for LVRT

German code
Control block diagram of the test bed
Grid response During LVRT
 Methods for Fault Ride-
Through

Suitable control
Additional hardware
strategies for power
circuitry (hardware)
.systems (software)

superconducting fault a static synchronous

chopper circuit
current limiters (SFCLs) compensator (STATCOM)
 Control strategies During the fault

Four major strategies are available

(a) unity power factor control,

(b) positive sequence control,

(c) constant active power control and

(d) constant reactive power control.

 STATCOM
STATCOM is installed at the point of common coupling (PCC),

Adv: it not only reduces grid voltage sag by supplying reactive power support but
also assists in rapidly rebuilding the voltage after faults are cleared.

Disadvantage, STATCOM is a complex structure and requires auxiliary equipment,

such as crowbar circuits, to avoid overcurrent.
 Software strategies
Software provides suitable control strategies,

• To limit overcurrent and overvoltage

• To offer reactive power to restrict voltage sag

 Single and Two stage inverters
The LVRT capacity of two-stage single- and three-phase PV systems can be improved
by switching from the MPPT to non MPPT, fault current

Disadvantages
software methods reduce the reinjection speed of maximum real power and
weaken the dynamic performance of the power system.
 Fault Detection
• SOGI-PLL system is used to detect the fault
condition by monitoring the grid voltage
frequency and the amplitude
 VOLTAGE DIPS DETECTION
AND PHASE-LOOKED- LOOPS
Methods can obtain the exact voltage dip depth within half fundamental period
under ideal operation conditions

Decoupled Double Synchronous

Reference (DDSRF)

Enhanced Phase-Locked Loop (EPLL)

Moving Average Filter (MAF)

Synchronous Reference Frame with

Low pass filter (LSRF)
 VOLTAGE DIPS DETECTION AND
PHASE-LOOKED- LOOPS
Methods used during asymmetrical faults Using
Sequence Separation Method (SSM)

Orthogonal algorithms, such as

• Second-Order-Generalized- Integrator
(SOGI) method , superior in phase angle
calculation, not sensitive to harmonics,
reduced memory usage

• T/4 delay method , fast but more

sensitive to harmonics

• Differentiation method, fast but more

sensitive to harmonics

•
 Dynamic Performance
The general control strategies using

• Proportional resonance (PR) controller in stationary coordinates

• PI controller in synchronous coordinates

• Deadbeat (DB) controller or repetitive controller (RC)

However; may occur overcurrent and open CB which means LVRT failure

• Voltage feed- forward method in the control loop of Dynamic Voltage Restorer
(DVR)
to acquire fast dynamic response and suppress the abrupt current change,
resulting in effective LVRT
 Control under asymmetrical Faults

• Vector Current Control with Feed-Forward of negative-sequence grid

voltage (VCCF)

Assisted by the SSM, which avoids double-line frequency fluctuation in d-q frame,
.the interface converter can inject symmetrical and sinusoidal current to the grid
 Control under Unsymmetrical Faults
• Dual Vector Current Control (DVCC)

Improves the conventional control

method by taking negative sequence
current into consideration
Current reference generation during grid
faults
• Instantaneous Active Reactive Control (IARC)

• Using both PS and NS to reduce the NS of the grid voltage

• LVRT strategy controls both NS and PS to eliminate the active

power oscillations under grid faults

• transformer less three-level PV inverter is introduced and the effects of the

unbalanced faults on the neutral point in this inverter are analyzed for LVRT operation

• LVRT control strategy in the d-q reference frame for the grid-connected converters without
considering the characteristics of a renewable energy source, either PV or wind

• a three-phase system has been investigated, which offers six current control freedoms
with a zero-sequence current path to mitigate both active and reactive power oscillations
and also inject sinusoidal currents
• a constant dc source has been used; the negative effects of the unbalanced faults on the
capacitive dc-link have not been explored

• dc-link voltage is assumed to be constant. This assumption is not proper in case of an

unbalanced fault as total power would not be zero and ripple would be induced to dc link
voltage

• a flexible control strategy for operation of the three-phase PV inverters under unbalanced
faults

• improved the Dual Vector Current Control (DVCC) method to control the high peak currents
and minimize the power ripple

• control strategy is proposed that balances the PS and NS components utilizing the power
capacity of the inverter. However, the injected active and reactive power components still
contain oscillatory harmonics.
 Research Plan

• Literature survey of grid connected Photovoltaic systems and low voltage ride
through techniques (software, hardware configurations).

• Modeling of a grid connected PV system to study the fault types which may
occur in such system.

• Propose a method to detect the grid fault.

• Propose a suitable control technique for FRT in the adopted Grid connected
PV system.

• Simulations of the system using one of the simulation software tools and
discuss the results.

• Writing of the thesis and Conclusions.

 Research Points
(1) a new general and flexible current reference generation method that injects
sinusoidal currents even under unbalanced grid faults;

(2) Elimination of double grid frequency oscillations from the injected active
power and the dc-link voltage under unbalanced voltage sag faults,

(3) A Non-MPPT operation mode for the dc-dc converter, which is enabled
under severe faults, when the converter cannot handle the maximum PV
power;

(4) an effective current limiting method that can restrict the injected currents
to the rated value.