A novel islanding protection system for photovoltaic inverters

Abstract

It is very difficult to detect an islanding condition of a power distribution line with conventional voltage or frequency relays while the output power and the load power of utility interactive PV inverter units are in nearly balanced state in both active power and reactive power. This is because a sufficiently large voltage or frequency change cannot be expected at such a balanced state. Many studies have been reported so far to complement dead bands in combination of active and passive methods to prevent the islanding, but none of them has been successful. This paper presents the principle of a new active method called slip mode frequency shift (SMS). With this method the reactive power between the inverter and the load is made unbalanced intentionally to cause the frequency to shift as if it slips down a slide. The performance when the dead bands are eliminated effectively in the range of practical use has been examined through simulation and experiments.