Fault-Ride-Through Approach for Grid-Tied Smart Transformers without Local Energy Storage

• Main Authors: Justino Rodrigues, Carlos Moreira, João Peças Lopes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: balanced faults; fault ride through; hybrid AC/DC network; smart transformer; unbalanced faults
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5622

The Smart Transformer (ST) is being envisioned as the possible backbone of future distribution grids given the enhanced controllability it provides. Moreover, the ST offers DC-link connectivity, making it an attractive solution for the deployment of hybrid AC/DC distribution grids which offer important advantages for the deployment of Renewable Energy Sources, Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) and Electric Vehicles. However, compared to traditional low-frequency magnetic transformers, the ST is inherently more vulnerable to fault disturbances which may force the ST to disconnect in order to protect its power electronic converters, posing important challenges to the hybrid AC/DC grid connected to it. This paper proposes a Fault-Ride-Through (FRT) strategy suited for grid-tied ST with no locally available ESS, which exploits a dump-load and the sensitivity of the hybrid AC/DC distribution grid’s power to voltage and frequency to provide enhanced control to the ST in order to handle AC-side voltage sags. The proposed FRT strategy can exploit all the hybrid AC/DC distribution grid (including the MV DC sub-network) and existing controllable DER resources, providing FRT against balanced and unbalanced faults in the upstream AC grid. The proposed strategy is demonstrated in this paper through computational simulation.