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Fault Current Contribution From Synchronous Machine and Inverter Based Distributed Generators
Natthaphob Nimpitiwan, Student Member, IEEE, Gerald Thomas Heydt, Fellow, IEEE, Raja Ayyanar, Member, IEEE, and Siddharth Suryanarayanan, Member, IEEE

AbstractThere are advantages of installing distributed generation (DG) in distribution systems: for example, improving reliability, mitigating voltage sags, unloading subtransmission and transmission system, and sometimes utilizing renewables. All of these factors have resulted in an increase in the use of DGs. However, the increase of fault currents in power systems is a consequence of the appearance of new generation sources. Some operating and planning limitations may be imposed by the resulting fault currents. This paper discusses a model of inverter based DGs which can be used to analyze the dynamic performance of power systems in the presence of DGs. In a style similar to protective relaying analysis, three-dimensional plots are used to depict the behavior of system reactance ( ) and resistance ( ) versus time. These plots depict operating parameters in relation to zones of protection, and this information is useful for the coordination of protection systems in the presence of DG. Index TermsDistributed/dispersed generation, fault calculation, inverters, power distribution, power system protection.

TABLE I INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM RESPONSES TO ABNORMAL VOLTAGE [4]

I. INTRODUCTION

CCORDING to the demands of clean energy, high reliability, and enhanced power quality for sensitive loads, the demand of distributed resources is gradually rising. Moreover, the distributed resources may decrease or defer the investment of system upgrades (i.e., transmission line and transformer ratings) due to increasing power demand. There are many technologies for distributed resources beyond the conventional synchronous machine DGs such as fuel cells, wind turbines, solar cells, and microturbines. These DGs often require power electronic interfaces to interconnect with the utility grid. Installing DG at a customer site enhances certain aspects of the power quality of the owners by mitigating the voltage sag during a fault. Moreover, DG improves the owner reliability as the back up generator can often be started within 2 minutes. Although there are many advantages of installing DGs, a few operating conicts cannot be ignored. Conicts from installation of DGs, such as changes in coordination of protective devices,

Manuscript received September 22, 2005. This work was supported in part by the Salt River Project (SRP), Phoenix, AZ and in part by the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSerc). Paper no. TPWRD-00559-2005. N. Nimpitiwan was with the Department of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5706 USA. He is now with the Department of Electrical Engineering at Bangkok University, Pratumthani, Thailand (e-mail: natthaphob.n@bu.ac.th). G. T. Heydt and R. Ayyanar are with the Department of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5706 USA (e-mail: heydt@asu. edu; rayyanar@asu.edu). S. Suryanarayanan is with the Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 USA (e-mail: sid.suryanarayanan@ieee.org). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2006.881440

nuisance trip, safety degradation and changes in the reach of protective relays, are discussed in [1][3]. Installing a small or medium DG may not have a signicant impact on the power quality indices at the feeder level. The main reason for this observation is that IEEE Standard 1547 [4] requires that the DG should be disconnected from the supply feeder after a specied period of time shown in Table I. The DG will, after the cited disconnection, have no impact on the supply feeder. Fault calculations in power systems are used to determine the interrupting capability of circuit breakers and the settings of protective relays. The calculation of fault current at system buses matrix. The is done conventionally by applying the system effects of merchant plants, such as independent power producers (IPPs), must be augmented to the classical fault current calculation. New developments in deregulation have brought new generation sources to the system. The appearance of DGs is a cause of increasing fault currents that may not have been previously envisioned. Analysis of fault current by modifying the traditional algorithm (i.e., analysis of bus impedance matrix) is discussed in [5] . However, fault current calculation by applying matrix in the presence of inverter based the conventional DGs may be complicated due to the difculty of estimating the impedance of the electronic inverter. One of the requirements of the IEEE Standard 1547 [4] is that the installation of DGs should not cause the network equipment loading and interrupting capability (IC) of protection equipment, such as fuses and circuit breakers, to exceed the rated IC. Also, the coordination of the protection system of the network should not be disrupted. This paper accesses the impact of installation of DGs (i.e., synchronous machine DGs as well as inverter based DGs) on coordination of protection devices in a subtransmission system. The organization of this paper includes sections on the model of an inverter based DG with associated controls, the simulation strategy, case studies and results from the simulation model, and a discussion on the effect of DGs on protection coordination.

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Fig. 2. Control model for an inverter based DG.

Fig. 1. Inverter based DG connecting to a grid system.

II. MODEL OF INVERTER BASED DISTRIBUTED GENERATIONS Not all DGs are conventional synchronous generators. Some DGs employ energy sources that produce dc voltage which is used as an input to an inverter and is ultimately interfaced with the ac system. The controls of that inverter and the electronic topology of the inverter determine how the inverter is seen by the network. A full detailed treatment of inverter based DGs may be quite complex, but the approximate response of the inverter in the 2 to 60 cycle time frame may sufce for fault current analysis. DG controls are not standardized and control modeling may be problematic. References [6][9] discuss the modelling of the inverter based DGs and their connection to the grid system. For the purpose of fault analysis in subtransmission systems, the model of inverter based DG is accomplished under the assumption that the input voltage from dc sources to the pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter is regulated and essentially xed in the time frame 01.0 s. Inverter based DGs operate as controlled voltage sources connected to the grid through a step up transformer. The step up transformer with deltadelta connection (e.g., 4 kV/12.47 kV) eliminates the zero sequence components from the inverter to the grid. Fig. 1 shows the assumed connection of inverter based DG to the grid system. The control strategies are to generate the balanced three phase voltage and to control the power output of the inverter. The controller consists of two control loops: the amplitude controller and the angle difference controller. The amplitude and angle difference controller provide the modulating signal to the PWM signal generator. The harmonics from the PWM inverter are ltered by an LC low pass lter. The cutoff frequency, , should be set low enough to pass the fundamental power signal but high enough to provide the attenuation of harmonics of the inverter voltage. Fig. 2 shows the generalized control model for an inverter based DG. The amplitude controller is shown in Fig. 3. The output , is transformed via a time dependent voltage of the DG, transformation. transformation. The transform used is the This transformation has the property of frequency domain shifting the input phase voltages to a low frequency voltage.

Fig. 3. Amplitude controller of an inverter based DG.

Also, high frequency terms occur as a result of the transformation. The input of the transformation is the power frequency of the grid system which is detected by a phase locked loop (PLL) at the point of common coupling (PCC). The advantage of the to transformation is the ability to obtain low frequency control signals and rapid calculations. In this discussion, it is assumed that the high frequency terms that occur in the transformed variables are ltered out. , , and mainly The time domain variables consist of power frequency components (i.e., 60 Hz comtransformation is time varying with dc and ponents). The , , and power frequency components. Therefore, generally contain dc, 60 Hz, and 120 Hz components. This is a consequence of the property that the Fourier transform (FT) of a product is the convolution of the FTs of the component multipliers. If a low pass lter is applied to the vector , then results. The latter vector is nearly dc, under near balanced sinusoidal steady state conditions. For purposes of designing and modeling a controller, , , , , , and rms voltages of are used. These rms values are denoted as , , , , , and . The same notation is used for rms current. A proportional plus integral (PI) controller minimizes the , the difference between the reference signal error signal and the instantaneous voltages and . The phase controller provides a phase difference, , beand (see Fig. 2). A model of the phase controller tween is shown in Fig. 4. Inputs to the phase controller, and , are reference frame. The phase of and can transformed to be calculated as,

In the phase controller, a PI controller is applied to minimize . The output avthe error of specied power output value, erage power of the inverter based DG is measured as the output from a low pass lter.

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Fig. 5. Output current of the inverter based DG (stand alone) with a load change at t = 0:15 s.

Fig. 4. Phase controller of an inverter based DG.

TABLE II CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INVERTER BASED DG FOR SIMULATIONS

Fig. 6. Output voltage of the inverter based DG (stand alone) with a load change at t = 0:15 s.

The cut-off frequency of the low pass lter has to be set at the appropriate value to attenuate measurement noise. However, the value must be high enough to provide a good transient response of the phase controller. The output of the PI controller is added and used to calculate the required amplitude to the phase of and phase of the modulating signal. The last step in the phase difference controller is to transform the modulating signal back reference frame. The transformed modulating signal to the is used to control the PWM signal generator. A simulation of stand-alone operation is utilized to demonstrate the cited model, and this simulation assumes a local load and an inverter based DG. The inverter based DG is disconnected from the grid system (Fig. 1) to show the transient response of the DG due to changes in load. In the case of standalone operation, the inverter requires only the amplitude controller to set the voltage at the reference point. For purposes of this demonstration, the output power of the inverter varies depending on the load. The inverter based DG parameters used in the simulation are shown in Table II. The demonstration of the stand-alone simulation time is from to 0.3 s with simulation time step, . The three

Fig. 7. Modulation index (m ) of the inverter based DG (stand alone) with a load change at t = 0:15 s.

phase output voltage is set at 1.0 p.u. or 12.47 kV. To demonstrate the dynamic performance of the inverter based DG, after reaching the steady state, the load is changed from 3 MW/0.1 . Figs. 5 and 6 show the MVAr to 5 MW/0.1 MVAr at current of the inverter based DG and the output line to neutral voltage, respectively. Note that, in Fig. 6, a voltage swell occurs during the change of the load. In this case, the voltage swell is approximately 5% of the nominal operating voltage. Fig. 7 in the amplitude controller depicts the modulation index which is used to control the switching of PWM generator.

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Fig. 8. Harmonic content of the output current from inverter based DG in standalone operation.

Fig. 9. Active power output of inverter based DG in stand-alone operation.

domain equation solvers in both the time domain and in the (e.g., trapezoidal method, Adams method, modied Rosenbrock method and the RungeKutta method). This approach allows one to accurately model the effects of electronic switching. The results of simulations, such as voltages and currents measured in the system, can be recorded for further analysis. The simulation of synchronous machine DGs is derived from voltage equations and ux linkage equations, expressed in a rotational reference frame. Details of the synchronous machine model are discussed in [10]. In general, simulation time steps in the 50 microsecond range are recommended for a 60 Hz system. The simulation interval in the illustrative examples shown is 01 second. Longer simulation times are unlikely to be needed for fault current analysis, but could be easily accommodated. To demonstrate the impact of DGs in a subtransmission system, a test bed representative of an actual distribution system is produced for illustrative purposes and this test system is shown in Fig. 10. Characteristics of the test bed are shown in Table III. The test bed system is connected to a 230 kV transmission system at Bus1 which itself is modeled as a Thevenin equivalent obtained from conventional short circuit analysis. The voltage level at the 230 kV supply is stepped down to 69 kV. The taps of the 230 kV substation transformer and the 12 kV distribution transformers usually operate higher than 1.0 p.u. to mitigate the effect of voltage drop in the distribution primary system. The Thevenin equivalent positive and negative sequence impedance of the 230 kV bus is ohms per phase for the demonstration below. Note that capacitors are installed at the load sites to improve the power factor. The per unit base used in all illustrative cases is 100 MVA. IV. SIMULATION RESULTS In this section, the simulation technique is used to investigate and compare the impact of the presence of both synchronous machine DGs and the inverter based DGs in the subtransmission system. The subtransmission system (Fig. 10) is used as a test bed to illustrate the simulation technique. Assume that DGs are installed at 12.47 kV buses at four locations: Bus16, Bus24, Bus25 and Bus27 (Fig. 10). Illustrative cases are separated into three parts: no DGs in the system in Case 1, the system with synchronous machine DGs in Case 2 and the system with inverter based DGs in Case 3. The generation capacity of each synchronous machine DG in Case 2 and inverter based DG in Case 3 are 5 MW. Parameters of all synchronous machine DGs applied in the simulations (in Case 2) are identical and shown in Table IV. Similar to the synchronous machine DGs, all machine parameters of the inverter based DGs (in Case 3) are identical and are described in Table II. Summary of the illustrative cases is provided in Table V. In these particular cases, the penetration level in the system is approximately 7% based on the total load of the test bed system (300 MVA). The intent is to illustrate a modest penetration of DGs and the resultant fault current response. After analyzing the results of simulation with various fault situations (i.e., various type of faults, fault locations), it is found that the installation of DGs (at the specic locations in the test bed system) may disrupt the operation of the protective relays

According to the specic design and the indicated operating condition, after reaching the steady state, the total harmonic disand ) are 1.36 and 0.66%, respectively. tortion ( Fig. 8 depicts the harmonic content of the output current of inverter based DG. Note that the plots are shown in semi logarithmic scale. The average active power output (average over one cycle) is shown in Fig. 9. The active power changed from 3 . Note that the inverter output folMW to 5 MW at lows the load demand and the transient response time is in the range of 2030 ms. III. SIMULATION STRATEGY As discussed in the previous section, the analysis of fault current of the system with the presence of inverter based DGs may be complicated because the inverter effectively has a nonlinear V-I characteristic in the 2 to 60 cycle time range. A dynamic simulation technique is proposed to analyze the consequences of the installation of DGs. The major advantage of the simulation technique is the ability to evaluate the response of the system with complex elements (e.g., power electronic elements). Since the inverter is a dynamic element, it appears that the only accurate method to characterize fault currents in the presence of inverter based DGs is through the use of dynamic simulation. The simulation of the power system is accomplished by creating a dynamic model state space representation of the system. The simulation is performed by applying numerical differential

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Fig. 10. Sample 69 kV transmission system.

TABLE III CHARACTERISTIC OF THE TEST BED SYSTEM

TABLE IV SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE PARAMETERS

located at Bus16 (12.47 kV bus). For this particular case, misoperation of the protective relay can be illustrated by a three phase bolted fault at the midpoint of the subtransmission line between Bus14 and Bus23 (69 kV). Assume that the fault occurs at and is cleared at 500 ms or 100 ms after fault occurs. This 100 ms fault is a commonly selected duration time for fault anal, resistance , and reactance ysis. The impedance (i.e., seen from the line terminals) are measured at various locations to monitor the consequences of the installation of DGs. For the purposes of this presentation, the notation and procedures of power system protective relaying are used with regard to , , and . These quantities are ratios of rms volts to rms amps, and the rms is carried out over one cycle (i.e., 1/60 s). The measurement at Bus16 is detected at the PCC or the point of DG connection on the secondary side of 69/12.47 kV distribution transformer. Note that these measurements are the input to the protective relays at Bus16 (12.47 kV). The analysis is performed by assuming that all the DGs have constant power output. Loads in the system at 12.47 kV buses are considered as constant impedance loads. Fig. 10 shows the one line diagram of the test bed system used for the simulation case studies. The several plots in Fig. 11 will be discussed. For the purposes of illustration and comprehension, two graphic devices are used: a two-dimensional plot of versus and three-dimensional plots of versus time. A three-dimensional plot can be used to depict the behavior of

TABLE V SUMMARY OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE CASES

and versus time. The three-dimensional plots in some commercial software are equipped with the ability to zoom-in, zoom-out and rotate graphs to any desired orientation. This ability cannot be completely demonstrated in a paper document. versus time are illustrated from However, the plots of , two distinct vantage points in Fig. 11. Although interesting in appearance, these plots may be difcult to interpret and, thereversus fore, a two-dimensional plot may be used, namely . The concepts and applications of graphical illustrations on protective relaying evaluation and testing are discussed in [11].

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Fig. 11. Plots of X R and X R-time at Bus16 (12.47 kV) illustrating the visualization afforded by rotation around the vertical (reactance) axis. (a) Plots of X R and X R versus time at Bus16 (12.47 kV) of the test bed system without DG, Case 1. (b) Plots of X R and X R versus time at Bus16 (12.47 kV) of the test bed system with synchronous machine DGs, Case 2. (c) Plots of X R and X R-time at Bus16 (12.47 kV) illustrating the visualization afforded by rotation around the vertical (reactance) axis.

In Fig. 11, the cylinder in the plots of versus time represents the characteristic of the impedance relay (e.g., con). The impedance relay operates when the impedance stant measured at the bus falls within the cylinder (80% of the line impedance for protection zone 1 and 120% for zone 2). plots represents the Also note that the circle in the characteristic of the impedance relay. The rotating graphic capability appears to be useful to conceptualize the characteristic. plane is needed (i.e., the time For example, if only the of entry of a trajectory into a zone of protection of a relay is a parameter that evolves in this plot), the plot may be rotated so that t is perpendicular to the page (or computer screen). If the time dial setting is needed, the plot is rotated 45 , so that

the entry of the trajectory into the zone of protection is plainly visible. Other interpretations of rotated plots are also possible. The results of calculating root-mean-square voltages and currents for relaying applications are shown in the plots of versus time. In Fig. 11, the plots of and and versus time are separated into three durations: prefault ( 0.4 s), during the fault ( 0.40.5 s) and after the 1.0 s). All three time intervals are fault is cleared ( shown on every graph in Fig. 11. With reference to Fig. 11(a), note that the primary and secondary protection loci are depicted, and the trajectory of versus is shown in the left most plot as , . The versus trajectory a dot situated near motion is better noted in the center plot of Fig. 11(a). In Case 2 [Fig. 11(b)], the versus trajectory is the irregular locus

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Fig. 12. Comparison of the fault currents (p.u.) from three phase to ground bolted fault at the middle of the line between Bus14Bus23 (69 kV), Cases 13 (per unit base: 100 MVA, 69 kV).

. The installation of four 5 MVA DGs in the current of for synchronous DGs, or test bed system results in for inverter based DGs. Thus, one concludes that if the indicated study is representative of deployment of DGs in distribution systems, the synchronous machine design results in or 1.2 (i.e., 20%) higher fault current for the synchronous machine design. The protection system may lose coordination upon installation of DGs. This point is illustrated as follows: before installing DGs (Case 1), distance relay at Bus16 (12.47 kV) should not operate to clear the fault. This is due to the upstream fault on the subtransmission system. The fault should be cleared by the distance relays of the line between Bus14 and Bus23 (69 kV). When synchronous machine DGs are installed (Case 2), the fault current ows from DG at Bus16 to the fault point and the relay at Bus16 (12.47 kV) might operate [Fig. 11(b)]. This situation depends on the coordination of the protection system before installing DGs. Thus, the protection system might lose coordination for the case of installed synchronous machine DGs. However, in Case 3, when a three-phase fault occurs at the middle of the line between Bus14 and Bus23, the fault current from the inverter based DGs are less severe than in Case 2. Simulation results show that the distance relay at Bus16 does not detect the fault. The protection system operates similar to Case 1 to clear the fault. The results of simulations can be used to analyze the setting of relays in the system with the presence of DGs. For example, Fig. 13 shows the operation time of a distance relay at Bus16 (12.47 kV). Note that in Case 2, the primary protection of the protective relay at Bus16 detects the fault in 13 ms. In Case 3, the fault is not detected by zone 1 of the protective relay. This plot provides useful information to analyze the coordination of the protection system.

V. CONCLUSIONS
Fig. 13. Plot of time to operation of the distance relay at bus Bus16 (12.47 kV) versus reach of the relay, Case 2 and 3 (per unit base: 100 MVA, 12.47 kV).

seen to start at , and move toward the secondary protection boundary [see the leftmost plot of Fig. 11(b)]. The operational trajectory is seen also in the center and rightmost plots of Fig. 11(b). Fig. 11(c) depicts similar results for Case 3. Conclusions can be drawn from the simulations as: installation of DGs in the distribution system increases the fault current throughout the system. This situation may change the way protective relays react to the faults. Circuit breakers, fuses and setting of relays may need to be adjusted to the new appropriate range. For a person skilled in the interpretation of the three-dimensional plots, the rotational and zoom features may be used to quickly determine protective relay settings. The simulation results show that the increase of fault current from synchronous machine DGs is higher than that of inverter based DGs of identical ratings. Fault currents from the three-phase to ground bolted fault in Cases 13 are shown in Fig. 12. In order to compare fault currents with and without DG, let the no DG case for the test bed system result in a fault

This paper discusses the impact of installation of DGs in distribution systems from the perspective of increase in fault current and protection coordination. The fault current calculation matrix is comof the inverter based DGs by applying the plicated because inverters are nonlinear electronic devices. This problem can be approached by applying dynamic simulation contechniques. A model of inverter based DGs based on trols is discussed and compared with the synchronous machine counterpart. Simulation techniques are proposed to investigate the operation of protection systems. Information from the dynamic simulations is useful in protective system coordination. The use of a novel three dimensional , , depiction is illustrated in which graphic rotation and zoom features are used. Simulation results show that the increase in fault currents is often greater in the synchronous machine implementation versus a comparable inverter based design.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank J. Blevins, A. B. Cummings, and R. Thallam for their technical expertise and advice.

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REFERENCES [1] N. Nimpitiwan and G. T. Heydt, Fault current issues for market driven power systems with distributed generation, in Proc. North Amer. Power Symp., Moscow, Idaho, Aug. 2004, pp. 400406. [2] R. C. Dugan and T. E. McDermott, Operating conicts for distributed generation on distribution systems, in Proc. Rural Electric Power Conf., 2001, pp. A3/1A3/6. [3] R. C. Dugan and S. K. Price, Issues for distributed generation in the US, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting, 2002, vol. 1, pp. 121126. [4] IEEE Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources With Electric Power Systems, IEEE Std. 1547-2003, Aug. 2003. [5] G. T. Heydt, Computer Analysis Methods for Power Systems. Scottsdale, AZ: Stars in a Circle, 1996. [6] M. Prodanovic and T. C. Green, Control of power quality in inverterbased distributed generation, in Proc. IEEE Ind. Electron. Soc. Conf., 2002, vol. 2, pp. 11851189. [7] M. N. Marwali and A. Keyhani, Control of distributed generation systems-Part I: voltages and currents control, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 15411550, Nov. 2004. [8] C. J. Hatziadoniu, A. A. Lobo, F. Pourboghrat, and M. Daneshdoost, A simplied dynamic model of grid-connected fuel-cell generators, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 467473, Apr. 2002. [9] T. Petru and T. Thiringer, Modeling of wind turbines for power system studies, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 11321139, Nov. 2002. [10] C. M. Ong, Dynamic Simulation of Electric Machinery: Using Matlab/ Simulink. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1998. [11] A. P. Sakis Meliopoulos and G. J. Cokkinides, Visualization and animation of protective relay operation, in Proc. Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting, 2002, vol. 2, pp. 14101414.
Natthaphob Nimpitiwan (S01) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe. Currently, he is a Faculty Member in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Bangkok University, Pratumthani, Thailand. His research interests include distributed/dispersed generation, modeling/simulation of power systems, articial neural networks, and engineering education.

Gerald Thomas Heydt (S62M64SM80F91) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Currently, he is the Director of a power engineering center program with Arizona State University, Tempe, where he is a Regents Professor. His industrial experience is with the Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago, IL, and E. G. & G., Mercury, NV. Dr. Heydt is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Raja Ayyanar (S97M00) received the M.S. degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with Arizona State University, Tempe. He has many years of industrial experience designing switch-mode power supplies. His research interests include topologies for modern dcdc converters, new pulsewidth modulation techniques for drives, and power electronics applications in power systems.

Siddharth Suryanarayanan (S00M04) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe. Currently, he is an Assistant Scholar Scientist with the Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University, Tallahassee. His research interests include state estimation applications, power quality, power transmission, modeling/simulation of power systems, and engineering education.