An Universal Interconnection System to Connect Distributed Generation to the Grid

Interconnection equipment between distributed energy resources (DER) and the grid is typically custom designed by the distributed generation (DG) equipment manufacturer or integrated by engineering firms using subcomponents such as relays, sensors and switchgear. The DER Switch described in the paper has integrated all of the required equipment for the DER interconnection into a single package that is designed to be compliant with IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 standards. A 480 V, 200 A, circuit breaker based DER Switch prototype with a digital signal processing (DSP) board was designed, built and tested. The objective was to create a standard, flexible universal interface switch for distributed energy resources so that single or multiple DER systems like wind turbines or solar arrays can be connected to a utility. The resulting interconnection switch design is DER technology neutral and can be used for inverter and machine DG applications.