Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Grid Friendly
Utility-Scale PV Plants
Mahesh Morjaria & Dmitriy Anichkov
13 August 2013
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Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Power Plant Controller Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Dynamic Voltage Regulation Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Active Power Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Frequency Droop Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Fault Ride-Through Capability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Grid-Friendly PV Plants Are Operational Today. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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Utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants that support grid stability and reliability are becoming available as PV
generation grows to the point of making a significant contribution to the grid, and grid friendly features are clearly
needed. Examples are voltage regulation, active power controls, ramp-rate controls, fault ride-through, frequency
control and others. A plant-level control system which controls a large number (in hundreds) of individual inverters to
affect plant output at the grid connection point is a key enabler.
Introduction
A typical PV solar generation plant is composed of multiple individual generators
connected to the electrical network via power electronics (inverters). Through
sophisticated control functions, the PV plant can contribute actively to grid stability and
reliability and operate effectively in the grid.
A task force under the aegis of the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation
(NERC) has made several recommendations on specific requirements that such variable
generation plants must meet in order to provide their share of grid support. These
recommendations address grid requirements such as voltage control and regulation,
voltage and frequency fault ride-through, reactive and real power control and frequency
response criteria in the context of the technical characteristics and physical capabilities
of variable-generation equipment.
Below, we describe our concept of a grid friendly PV plant that incorporates these
recommendations. The grid friendly PV plant also includes the ability to ride through
specific low and high voltages or low- and high-frequency ranges. A number of plants
with these features are in operation and field data from First Solar-developed utilityscale PV plants are used to illustrate the concepts.
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Dynamic voltage and/or power factor regulation of the solar plant at the POI
(point of interconnection)
Real power output curtailment of the solar plant when required, so that it does
not exceed an operator-specified limit.
Ramp-rate controls to ensure that the plant output does not ramp up or down
faster than a specified ramp-rate limit, to the extent possible
The plant controller implements plant-level logic and closed-loop control schemes with
real-time commands to the inverters to achieve fast and reliable regulation. Typically
there is one controller per plant that is controlling the output at a single high-voltage bus
(referred to as POI). The commands to the plant controller can be provided through the
SCADA HMI or even through other interface equipment, such as a substation RTU.
Figure 1 illustrates a block-diagram overview of the control system and its interfaces
to other devices in the plant. The power plant controller monitors system-level
measurements and determines the desired operating conditions of various plant devices
to meet the specified targets. It manages capacitor banks and/or reactor banks, if
present. It manages all the inverters in the plant, ensuring that they are producing the
real and reactive power necessary to meet the desired settings at the POI.
When the plant operator sends an active power curtailment command, the controller
calculates and distributes active power curtailment to individual inverters. In general, the
inverters can be throttled back only to a certain specified level of active power and not
any lower without causing the DC voltage to rise beyond its operating range. Therefore,
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the plant controller dynamically stops and starts inverters as needed to manage the
specified active power output limit. It also uses the active power management function
to ensure that the plant output does not exceed the desired ramp rates, to the extent
possible. It cannot, however, always accommodate rapid reduction in irradiance due to
cloud cover.
Substation
POI Measurements
POI Voltage,
Current & Frequency
Substation RTU
Set Points
Plant Controller
RTU Data
SCADA HMI
Set Points
HMI Data
Set Points (Power,
Voltage or PF)
Plant Network
PCS #1
Inverter Commands
PCS #n
DAS/PLC
Inverter #1
Legend
Inverter #2
DAS/PLC
Inverter #1
Inverter #2
DAS
HMI
PCS
PLC
POI
Point of Interconnection
RTU
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In the voltage-regulation mode, the controller maintains the specified voltage set
point at the POI by regulating the reactive power that is produced by the inverters as
well as other devices such as capacitor banks. In the power-factor regulation mode,
the controller maintains the specified power factor. The operation of the controller is
illustrated in Figure 3 below, which shows field data from a PV plant producing about 212
MW of active power at that time.
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Total VARs
-10
MVARs
1.000
0.995
Commanded
Power Factor
-20
0.990
-30
Power Factor
10
0.985
-40
-50
0.980
-4
-2
10
Time in Seconds
Figure 3: Dynamic Power-Factor Regulation
The figure illustrates the response of the plant when the power factor set point is
changed from 0.98 to 1.0. The controller commands the inverters to change their
reactive power output to meet the new power factor set point, using a closed-loop
control mechanism. The figure illustrates that the inverters respond very rapidly. Within
a few seconds (< 4 s) the new set point is achieved in a closed-loop control mode. More
specifically, the rise time to reach 90 percent of steady-state value shown above is about
3.2 s.
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Figure 4 below illustrates field data from a PV plant operating at around 90 MW power.
The curtailment limit is initially changed from 100 MW to 82.5 MW. The plant controller
turns down the inverters (and turns off some of them if required) to achieve the new set
point. Note that the turndown of power is gradual to meet the specified ramp-rate limit.
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100
100
95
95
90
90
85
85
80
80
75
Power (MW)
75
70
70
0
10
12
14
16
18
20
Time in Minutes
Figure 5: Power Curtailment at different levels
The curtailment limit is reduced again to around 75 MW, and the controller responds as
expected. When the limit is raised, the controller adjusts the output of the inverters to
increase the total plant output. Finally, when the limit is raised to 100 MW, the plant is
no longer curtailed since the plant is producing less than the limit.
In all the control actions, the controllers command to each inverter is unique, given
the specific conditions each inverter is experiencing. In the case of curtailment due to
cloud passage, where the plant has additional generating capacity but is restrained to
a specified limit and curtailment is limited to part of the plant, the controller can make
the adjustment to increase the output of other inverters that are not impacted. This will
result in increased energy yield and potential revenue as illustrated in Figure 5 below.
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85
80
80
75
70
Inverters are
turned off in
sequence;
ramp rates
are controlled
65
60
70
65
60
Plant Start
Command
55
0
75
Inverters are
started in
sequence
Power (MW)
Commanded MW
85
90
Plant Stop
Command
55
8
10
Time in Minutes
Figure 7: Plant Shut-Down and Start-up Controls
The above figure also illustrates the plant start command that results in the controller
gradually increasing the plant output by adjusting the inverters output and turning on
the inverters in sequence.
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1This is in line with the recommendation Encourage or mandate reduction of active power in response to
high frequencies (Piwko & others, March 2012)
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Grid-Friendly PV Plants
Are Operational Today
We have described a utility-scale grid friendly PV power plant that incorporates
advanced capabilities essential to supporting grid stability and reliability. It includes
features such as voltage regulation, active power controls, ramp-rate controls, fault
ride through, and frequency control. These capabilities provide the intrinsic benefits of
reliable plant operation in the grid, which in turn results in additional plant yield and
potential additional revenue. These grid-friendly capabilities, essential for increased
penetration of large-scale PV plants into the electric grid, are operational and available
today for utility-scale PV plants ranging from several megawatts to several hundred
megawatts. These advanced plant features enable solar PV plants to behave more like
conventional generators and actively contribute to grid reliability and stability, providing
significant value to utilities and grid operators.
Mahesh Morjaria, VP, Global Grid Integration, First Solar, leads the development of First Solars grid integration
capability for utility scale PV plants. His academic credits include B.Tech from IIT Bombay and Ph.D. from Cornell
University in USA.
Dmitry Anichkov, Principal Engineer, Plant Controls, First Solar, is responsible for the development of the First Solar
Real-Time Plant Control System. Dmitriy holds a MS degree from St. Petersburg Polytechnic.
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