Investigation of anti-islanding protection of power converter based distributed generators using frequency domain analysis

The anti-islanding algorithm proposed by the Sandia National Laboratories is analyzed in this study because this scheme, also known as the Sandia scheme, is considered to be effective in detecting islanding of distributed generation systems. Previously, other than heuristic approaches, there has not been any quantitative analysis for tuning the control gains of the algorithm based on the power rating and bandwidth of the distributed generation (DG) power converter. The paper interprets the components of the algorithm that affect the voltage magnitude and frequency into block diagrams that can be linearized and studied using continuous time approximations. This paper uses frequency domain approach to analyze the range for the gains required by anti-islanding algorithm to effectively determine the disconnection of the mains grid within an acceptable time duration. The analysis provides guidelines for using the Sandia's schemes under different application conditions. The results are validated using detailed time domain DG and power system simulations.