Rapid Active Power Control of Photovoltaic Systems for Grid Frequency Support

Anderson Hoke, Eduard Muljadi, Dragan Maksimovic, Sudipta Chakraborty, Mariko Shirazi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

203 Scopus Citations

Abstract

As deployment of power electronic coupled generation such as photovoltaic (PV) systems increases, grid operators have shown increasing interest in calling on inverter-coupled generation to help mitigate frequency contingency events by rapidly surging active power into the grid. When responding to contingency events, the faster the active power is provided, the more effective it may be for arresting the frequency event. This paper proposes a predictive PV inverter control method for very fast and accurate control of active power. This rapid active power control (RAPC) method will increase the effectiveness of various higher-level controls designed to mitigate grid frequency contingency events, including fast power-frequency droop, inertia emulation, and fast frequency response, without the need for energy storage. The RAPC method, coupled with a maximum power point estimation method, is implemented in a prototype PV inverter connected to a PV array. The prototype inverter's response to various frequency events is experimentally confirmed to be fast (beginning within 2 line cycles and completing within 4.5 line cycles of a severe test event) and accurate (below 2% steady-state error).

Original languageAmerican English
Article number7859347
Pages (from-to)1154-1163
Number of pages10
JournalIEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics
Volume5
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5D00-66859

Keywords

  • Active power control (APC)
  • frequency control
  • inverters
  • photovoltaics (PVs)
  • power systems

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