Intelligence based coordination of large scale grid-connected photovoltaic systems

Abstract

This paper explores the possibility of optimizing two control strategies currently available for photovoltaic (PV) plants, namely additional reactive power and active power reduction. As the penetration of PV plants is expected to increase, controlling such plants during faults becomes increasingly important. The stability of the power system during a fault and immediately after is affected by the system capability to control the reactive and active power flows. Motivated by the fact that curtailing active and injecting reactive power during faults impacts on the system behavior, the two available controllers are tuned and optimized in such a way that the system stability during the disturbance is secured with the help of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The optimization process uses the locally measured voltage and frequency at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) of the PV. The study takes into account various circumstances, such as levels of PV penetration and faults.