Reactive Power Control for Distributed Generation Power Plants to Comply With Voltage Limits During Grid Faults

Grid faults are one of the most severe problems for network operation. Distributed generation power plants can help to mitigate the adverse effects of these perturbations by injecting the reactive power during the sag and the postfault operation. Thus, the risk of cascade disconnection and voltage collapse can be reduced. The proposed reactive power control is intended to regulate the maximum and minimum phase voltages at the point of common coupling within the limits established in grid codes for continuous operation. In balanced three-phase voltage sags, the control increases the voltage in each phase above the lower regulated limit by injecting the positive sequence reactive power. In unbalanced voltage sags, positive and negative sequence reactive powers are combined to flexibly raise and equalize the phase voltages; the maximum phase voltage is regulated below the upper limit and the minimum phase voltage just above the lower limit. The proposed control strategy is tested by considering a distant grid fault and a large grid impedance. Selected experimental results are reported in order to validate the behavior of the control scheme.