Power Capability Boundaries for an Inverter Providing Multiple Grid Support Services

• Main Authors: Markel Zubiaga, Alain Sanchez-Ruiz, Eneko Olea, Eneko Unamuno, Aitor Bilbao, Joseba Arza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: ESS; grid integration; power quality; STATCOM; active power filter
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4314

It is getting more common every day to install inverters that offer several grid support services in parallel. As these services are provided, a simultaneous need arises to know the combined limit of the inverter for those services. In the present paper, operational limits are addressed based on a utility scale for a real inverter scenario with an energy storage system (ESS) (1.5 MW). The paper begins by explaining how active and reactive power limits are calculated, illustrating the <i>PQ</i> maps depending on the converter rated current and voltage. Then, the effect of the negative sequence injection, the phase shift of compensated harmonics and the transformer de-rating are introduced step-by-step. Finally, inverter limits for active filter applications are summarized, to finally estimate active and reactive power limits along with the harmonic current injection for some example cases. The results show that while the phase shift of the injected negative sequence has a significant effect in the available inverter current, this is not the case for the phase shift of injected harmonics. However, the amplitude of the injected negative sequence and harmonics will directly impact the power capabilities of the inverter and therefore, depending on the grid-side voltage, it might be interesting to design an output transformer with a different de-rating factor to increase the power capabilities.