A study of fault ride through with widespread grid integration of distributed generation

Along with number of benefits, wide-scale penetration of distributed generation (DG) units in distribution system imposes some critical challenges for power engineers. The major issues with interconnection of small DG units are related to protection, voltage control and power quality. Furthermore, overall system stability can also be affected due to the lack of fault ride through (FRT) capability of these small generators. This paper presents challenges in integration of small DG units and shows how their integration is affected by various transmission and distribution faults. A 43-bus industrial system fed from nine bus transmission system has been utilized as test system to perform the simulations. An analysis of the results identifies local-voltage collapse in distribution feeder as the most critical problem with large integration of DG.