Three-Phase Single-Stage Photovoltaic System With Synchronverter Control: Power System Simulation Studies

The performance of a grid forming inverter integrating solar PV/Wind farms with the grid is currently a topic of wide interest. Synchronverter control is one of the well-known grid forming converter techniques. Evaluation of synchronverter control in the benchmark system will help in understanding its operation when connected to a larger system. Therefore, this article investigates the performance of three phase single-stage photovoltaic (PV) system with a synchronverter control in the North American medium voltage (MV) benchmark system. The main objective is to conduct an exploratory study of the PV based synchronverter system when subjected to various disturbances. The modeling of PV array, controllers like synchronverter, dc-link voltage control, ac voltage control and their design is discussed in detail. The simulation studies for different cases are carried out by creating various disturbances like changes in solar radiation, temperature, load, faults, etc., in the benchmark system. Furthermore, under fault conditions, response with/without voltage droop mechanism in synchronverter is studied. All the offline simulations are carried out in PSCAD/EMTDC environment. Further, the real time test studies are validated on Controller-Hardware-In-Loop (CHIL) platform in Real-Time-Digital-Simulator (RTDS). From this simulation study, it is concluded that Synchronverter Control can be a viable option when used as a grid forming technique.