Dynamic Voltage Support by TL-PV Systems to Mitigate Short-Term Voltage Instability in Residential DN

Recently, transformerless (TL) inverters are being extensively used in small-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems due to their compact-size, lighter-weight, lower-cost and higher-efficiency compared to their counterpart with transformer. However, the growing penetration of these small-scale based PV systems and low-inertia induction motor (IM) loads in low-voltage distribution networks (DNs) make the grid more vulnerable to short-term voltage stability (STVS). Hence, this paper thoroughly examines the STVS of DN with high-penetration of TL-PV units, and provides countermeasures by TL-PV systems to mitigate any short-term voltage instability. The detailed dynamic model of the TL inverter is developed first. Next, three control strategies: (1) constant peak current (CPC), (2) constant active current (CAC), and (3) constant active power (CAP) with low voltage ride through (LVRT) and dynamic voltage support (DVS) capabilities are proposed to improve STVS. The impacts of different level of PV penetrations and LVRT capability of TL-PV inverters on the STVS are explored. Moreover, countermeasures, such as LVRT with CAC and CAP controls and DVS by the TL-PV systems are designed and implemented. Several case studies are carried out on an IEEE 4 bus system first, and later extended to IEEE 13 node test feeder. The results show that DVS can further improve STVS in residential DNs. In addition, CAP and CAC control strategies can speed-up the postdisturbance voltage recovery compared with the conventional CPC control.