DISTRIBUTED GENERATION UNITS CONTRIBUTING TO VOLTAGE CONTROL IN DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

Johan Morren, Sjoerd W.H. de Haan, J.A. Ferreira Electrical Power Processing, Delft University of Technology

ABSTRACT With the increasing number of Distributed Generation (DG) units connected to distribution networks, new voltage control techniques are necessary. The power electronic converters that connect most DG units to the grid, are mostly the only devices in the distribution network that can contribute to voltage control. In this contribution some special aspects of voltage control in distribution networks will be discussed and some case studies will show how power electronic converters can contribute to voltage control. INTRODUCTION Nowadays the voltage in distribution networks is only controlled by tap changers on the MV-distribution transformers. This voltage control is relatively slow and intended to compensate the current-dependent voltage drop along the feeder. When an increasing number of DG units will be connected to the distribution networks, the direction of the power flow may change, depending on production and consumption on a certain moment. For DG units that are based on renewable energy sources such as wind and sun, the prime source has a fluctuating nature and therefore the output power of the DG units may fluctuate. These changes in magnitude and direction of the power will result in a larger range of voltage drops occurring then without DG units. The voltage fluctuations can range from slow (hours) to fast (milliseconds). It may become difficult to keep the voltage within the specified limits, but also to meet requirements regarding flicker. A large part of the DG units is connected to the grid by power electronic converters. Besides converting the energy produced by the generators, these power electronic interfaces can perform ancillary services. One of the most important ancillary services will be reactive power supply, in order to contribute to voltage control. The DG unit converters are almost the only devices in the distributed network that can contribute to voltage control. This paper starts with a short review of possible ancillary services. Next it will be investigated how DG units can contribute to voltage control. Data from an existing distribution network will be used. Some special aspects and limitations of voltage control in distribution networks will be discussed, such as the fact that in distribution networks (at least in The Netherlands) often cables are used instead of overhead transmission lines. These cables have a low X/R ratio, which makes voltage control more difficult. Some case studies will be performed in which the converters of the DG units contribute to voltage control in the distribution network. ANCILLARY SERVICES One of the problems of the increasing amount of DG is the fact that control possibilities are rather limited in distribution networks. Almost the only controlling device is the tap-changer at the distribution transformer. Most types of DG units are connected to the grid by power electronic converters. In this context an important point is made by [1], as it is stated there that besides providing energy, distributed generators (DG) can have an increasing importance in a deregulated environment as it can provide some ancillary services. These ancillary services are provided in addition to real power generation and can be defined as all those activities on the interconnected grid, that are necessary to support the transmission of power while maintaining reliable operation and ensuring the required degree of quality and safety [2]. Examples of ancillary services are: Regulation of frequency Ensuring system stability Maintenance of generation and transmission reserves Reactive power supply for voltage control Mitigation of disturbances (power quality improvement In this contribution it will be investigated how DG units can contribute to voltage control. SHORT-CIRCUIT POWER X/R RATIO AND VOLTAGE CHANGE The short-circuit power (or short-circuit impedance) can be used to express the impact of DG units on the voltage in a distribution network. In many cases the short-circuit power of the grid will be known, at the place where a DG will be connected to the grid. This is especially true for the substation. When the short-circuit power is known, the maximum voltage variation that can be achieved by the DG unit can be obtained easily, as will be shown in this section.

When a load and a DG unit are connected to the grid, the circuit of Fig. 1 is applicable. The supply voltage source and the short-circuit impedance Zsc represent the Thvenin equivalent of the grid at the point of connection. The voltage Vdg = Vdg for Idg = 0 is defined as the reference voltage. With the superposition principle applied, the voltage change due to Idg is V dg = Vdg V s = Z sc I dg (1) Now Zsc= Rsc+jXsc and, Pdg jQdg I dg = (2) Vdg so that Pdg jQdg V dg = (Rsc + jX sc ) Vdg Rsc Pdg + X sc Qdg X sc Pdg Rsc Qdg = +j Vdg Vdg = Vdg ,r + jVdg , x The voltage change has a component Vdg,r in phase with Vdg and a component Vdg,x in quadrature with Vdg.

V dg ,new =

(Vdg + Vdg ,r )2 + (Vdg ,x )2

(8)

Fig. 2. Phasor diagram of voltage change From (4)-(8) it can be seen that the voltage change mainly depends on the X/R ratio of the short-circuit impedance (given by tan sc = X sc Rsc ), the ratio between the rated DG unit power Sdg and the shortcircuit power at the point of connection Ssc, and the active part Pdg and the reactive part Qdg of the DG unit power. To show the impact of DG units on the voltage in a distribution network, a generalised representation of a distribution network is shown, see Fig. 3. Only one DG unit and one load are shown. In reality the distribution networks are assumed to have a number of loads and DG units.

(3)

Fig. 1. DG unit and load connected to Thvenin equivalent of grid These two components can be written as [3]: 2 Vdg ,r 1 Vnom = Pdg cos sc + Qdg sin sc 2 Vdg S sc Vdg Fig. 3. Distribution network

] ]

(4)

and Vdg , x Vdg

2 1 Vnom Pdg sin sc Qdg cos sc 2 S sc Vdg

(5)

With tan sc = X sc Rsc . Under the assumption that |Vdg| |Vnom|, and with
2 2 Vdg = Vdg ,r + Vdg , x and sin 2 sc + cos 2 sc = 1 ,

the following equation can be obtained [3]: Vdg Vdg S dg S sc (6)

which is an equation that is often quoted in literature. Although equation (6) is an approximation, it is so useful because it expresses the voltage deviation Vdg as a function of the short-circuit power Ssc, and the active and reactive power Pdg and Qdg of the DG unit. Note that (6) only gives the length of the voltage change phasor, see Fig. 2. The actual change of the voltage Vdg, resulting in the new voltage phasor Vdg,new is given by

V dg = V dg ,new Vdg

(7)

where

When the load is close to the substation and the impedance between substation and load is small, i.e. much smaller then the short-circuit impedance at the substation, the voltage at the load terminal will almost be the same as the voltage at the substation. When the load is further from the substation however and thus the impedance increases, the voltage changes at the load terminal will become much larger then those at the substation. This can be seen form Fig. 4a, where the voltage change at the load terminal is shown for different values of the impedance between pcc and load. As the loads are connected to the substation by cables, the X/R ratio becomes lower due to the fact that the cables are highly resistive. For this reason the voltage change due to the reactive power is smaller then the voltage change due to the active power. This can be seen from Fig. 4b, where the voltage change due to reactive power consumption or production is shown. This also implies that it is difficult to use reactive power for voltage control. The nominal power of the DG unit that has been used is 6MW. The short-circuit power at the substation is about 200MW. The X/R ratio of the 10kV cables that are used is about 0.55. The Zc/Zsc values in Fig. 4 refer to cable lengths of 0.1, 1 and 10 km respectively.

the voltage at the substation is fluctuating. This fluctuating voltage will also be experienced by loads connected to the distribution feeder. It will now be investigated how the DG unit can compensate the voltage fluctuations at its terminals. The DG unit is connected to the grid by a three-phase voltage source inverter. A model of the converter is shown in Fig. 6. The converter is connected to the grid by an RL-filter. The converter is controlled by vector control in a dq0 reference frame. It has been modelled according to the switching function concept [4]. The switching of the converter is not taken into account. It is assumed that the filters of the converter reduce the higher frequency components [5]. It has been shown in [6], [7] that good simulation results can be obtained with this model.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4. Voltage change at DG unit terminal in cable network: (a) voltage change due to Pdg, Qdg=0, Xc/Rc=0.5, (b) voltage change due to Qdg, Pdg=0, Xc/Rc=0.5 The results obtained so far are typical for Dutch distribution networks which mainly consist of cables. The results may change however, when overhead lines are used. The resulting voltage changes for these lines are shown in Fig. 5. The figures show the same plots as Fig. 4. The lines that have been used have an X/R ratio of about 2.5. The total impedance per kilometer of a line is larger then that of cable. Therefore the line lengths are decreased to keep the same Zc/Zsc ratios. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the voltage change due to reactive power is now two times higher than the voltage change due to active power. This means that the voltage control capabilities are larger then in case of a cable network.

Fig. 6. Three-phase full-bridge Voltage Source Converter Consider the system of Fig. 6. The voltage balance across the inductors and resistors is: di va = van vagn = L f a + R f ia dt dib vb = vbn vbgn = L f + R f ib (9) dt di vc = vcn vcgn = L f c + R f ic dt With the Park transformation this equation can be transformed to the dq0 reference frame [6]: di v d = R f i d + L f d + e L f i q dt di q (10) v q = R f i q + L f e L f id dt di v 0 = R f i 0 + L f 0 dt The signals in the dq0 reference frame are constant in steady state. PI-controllers can be used to get the required currents. How this can be done is well-known and can be found in literature [6]. The setpoints for the currents are obtained from the power setpoints. The instantaneous active and reactive power delivered by the converter are given by [6]: p = vdg id + vqg iq (11) q = v qg id vdg iq with the d-axis of the reference frame along the statorvoltage position, vq is zero and as long as the supply voltage is constant, vd is constant. The active and reactive power are proportional to id and iq then.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 5. Voltage change at DG unit terminal in overhead line network: (a) voltage change due to Pdg, Qdg=0, Xc/Rc=2.5, (b) voltage change due to Qdg, Pdg=0, Xc/Rc=2.5 VOLTAGE CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION IN DG UNIT CONVERTERS Introduction The results so far are all steady-state. In this section dynamic voltage control will be investigated. It will be investigated how voltage control can be implemented in a converter and it will be shown in simulation studies that a converter can control the grid voltage at its terminals. DG unit converter With respect to the voltage control capabilities the gridside converter of the DG unit is the most important. The DG unit itself will be modeled as a source that supplies power to the DC side of the converter. It is assumed that

The active power controller will get its setpoint from the dc-link voltage controller while the reactive power gets a setpoint from the grid-voltage controller. The grid voltage is controlled in a feedback loop by a PI controller. Simulation results The simulation setup is shown by the network of Fig. 3. The circuit represents a DG unit connected to a substation by a 10 kilometer 10kV cable with an X/R ratio of 0.55. The short-circuit power at the substation is about 200MW and the DG unit has a rated power of 2MW. All simulation results are shown in per unit (pu). The active power of the DG unit and the resulting voltage at the terminal without voltage control applied are shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 respectively. This kind of voltage fluctuations can be caused by a wind turbine that is connected close to the DG unit. The setpoint of the reactive power controller is set to zero in this case.

shows the apparent power that is supplied by converter. It can be seen that the apparent power is much higher then 1 pu, which will not be allowed in most cases, as it will lead to thermal destruction of the converter. This means that in practical situations the converter will not be able to control the voltage completely because it will not be able to supply this reactive power.

Fig. 9. DG unit active (blue, solid line) and reactive (green, dotted line) power; cable network with voltage control

Fig. 7. DG unit active (blue, solid line) and reactive (green, dotted line) power; cable network without voltage control Fig. 10. DG unit terminal voltage; cable network with voltage control

Fig. 8. DG unit terminal voltage: cable network without voltage control It can be seen from Fig. 8 that there are voltage fluctuations of about 6 percent in the grid. These fluctuations are smaller then the allowed voltage deviations of 10% but might cause flicker problems. In Fig. 9 the active and reactive power supplied by the DG unit are shown. The reactive power is controlled in order to keep the grid voltage close to its nominal value. This explains the large fluctuations in the reactive power. The resulting terminal voltage is shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen from Fig. 9 that a large amount of reactive power is needed to control the voltage. Fig. 11 Fig. 11. DG unit apparent power; cable network with voltage control One of the reasons that such a high amount of reactive power is needed is that cable networks are used. These cables have a very low X/R ratio, making voltage control more difficult. This can be seen from the next set of pictures which have been made for the case where the cable is replaced by an overhead line of the same length but with an X/R of 2.5 instead of 0.55 for the cable.

The active and reactive power, terminal voltage and apparent power for this situation are shown in Fig. 12, Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 respectively. It can be seen that a much smaller amount of reactive power is needed to control the voltage. The apparent power becomes only slightly higher then 1 pu which means that in this case the converter will be able to control the voltage without overloading the converter.

Some special aspects of voltage control in distribution networks have been discussed. One of the most important points is the low X/R ratio of the impedances in distribution networks, which makes voltage control in distribution networks completely different from voltage control in transmission systems. In transmission systems is the inductance much higher then the resistance which makes voltage control easier. Further it has been shown how power electronic converters can contribute to voltage control. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research has been supported by the IOP-EMVT program of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. LITERATURE 1. Joos, G., Ooi, B.T., McGillis, D., Galiana, F.D., Marceau, R. The Potential of Distributed Generation to Provide Ancillary Services, in Proc. 2000 IEEE PES Summer Meeting, Vol. 3, pp. 1762 1767, 2000. 2. Bhattacharya, K., Bollen, M.H.J., Daalder, J.E., Operation of restructured power systems, Boston: Kluwer Academic Press, 2001. 3. Miller, T.J.E., Reactive power control in electric systems, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1982. 4. Ziogas, P.D., Wiechmann, E.P., Stefanovi , V.R., A Computer Aided Analysis and Design Approach for Static Voltage Source Inverters, IEEE Trans. on Ind. Appl., Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 1234-1241, 1985.

Fig. 12. DG unit active (blue, solid line) and reactive (green, dotted line) power; overhead line with voltage control

Fig. 13. DG unit terminal voltage; overhead line with voltage control

5. Mohan, N. Undeland, T.M., Robbins, W.P., Power Electronics Converters, Applications and Design, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995. 6. Morren, J., Haan, S.W.H. de, Ferreira, J.A., Model reduction and control of electronic interfaces of voltage dip proof DG units, in Proc. 2004 IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES) General Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA, 6- 10 June 2004. 7. Morren, J., Haan, S.W.H. de, Bauer, P., Pierik, J.T.G., Bozelie, J. Comparison of complete and reduced models of a wind turbine with Doubly-Fed Induction Generator in Proc. 10th European conference on Power Electronics and applications (EPE), Toulouse, France, 2 4 September 2003. AUTHORS ADRESS Johan Morren Electrical Power Processing, Delft University of Technology Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft The Netherlands J.Morren@ewi.tudelft.nl

Fig. 14. DG unit apparent power; overhead line with voltage control CONCLUSION With the increasing number of Distributed Generation (DG) units connected to distribution networks, new voltage control techniques are necessary. The power electronic converters that connect most DG units to the grid can contribute to voltage control.