Abstract
The presently observed rapid increase in photovoltaic (PV) micro-installation connections to low-voltage networks, resulting from numerous financial support programmes, European Union (EU) energy policy and growing social awareness of environmental and economic issues, raise the question if PV inverters widely available in EU market fulfil the numerous technical requirements specified in European and Polish regulations. The paper presents the results of an experimental study carried out on three PV Inverters widely available in the EU in accordance with the EU network code NC RfG, standard EN 50549-1:2019 and internal Polish distribution system operators’ (DSOs’) regulations, governing PV inverter cooperation with the low-voltage distribution network. The laboratory test stand scheme and its description are presented. In each test, at least one of the inverters encountered issues, either with the operation in required frequency ranges (one PV inverter), activating reactive power control modes (all three PV inverters), maintaining required power generation gradient after tripping (one PV inverter) or under-voltage ride through immunity (one PV inverter). The obtained results have shown that all tested PV inverters did not meet requirements that are the key to maintaining reliable and safe operation of transmission and distribution electrical networks.
Highlights
Increasing electricity prices [1] associated with increasing electrical energy consumption [2,3,4], the necessity for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions included in European Union (EU) policies regarding climate protection [5,6] and rapid technological development in power electronics and numerous programmes in EU member states, supporting the development of renewable energy sources (RESs) and low-carbon technologies, mean that in recent years the exponential trend of installed photovoltaic (PV) micro-installation capacity has been observed
In order to ensure appropriate operation of photovoltaic inverters, in the point of view of transmission system operators (TSOs) and distribution system operators’ (DSOs), including limiting the phenomenon of increasing the RMS voltage caused by the generation of electrical energy, a number of requirements have been formulated for micro-installations, which are specified in the EU network code NC RfG [21], the standard
After voltage returned to the nominal value, inverter Y during both voltage sags resumed full pre-fault power generation in less than 0.25 s, which fulfils the requirement resulting from the EU network code NC RfG [21] and the standard [22]
Summary
Increasing electricity prices [1] associated with increasing electrical energy consumption [2,3,4], the necessity for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions included in EU policies regarding climate protection [5,6] and rapid technological development in power electronics and numerous programmes in EU member states, supporting the development of renewable energy sources (RESs) and low-carbon technologies, mean that in recent years the exponential trend of installed photovoltaic (PV) micro-installation capacity has been observed. In order to ensure appropriate operation of photovoltaic inverters, in the point of view of transmission system operators (TSOs) and DSOs, including limiting the phenomenon of increasing the RMS voltage caused by the generation of electrical energy, a number of requirements have been formulated for micro-installations, which are specified in the EU network code NC RfG [21], the standard. In reference [27], the authors, in terms of the Horizon 2020 InterFlex project, conducted research on increasing micro-installation hosting capacity in low-voltage networks by activating reactive and active power control characteristics in PV inverters. The authors have decided to fill this gap and conduct practical experiments on selected PV inverters according to the most important requirements presented in documents [21,22], the fulfilment of which should contribute to the reliable and safe operation of transmission and distribution electrical networks
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