Enhancing the operation of smart inverters with PMU and data concentrators

Abstract

As inverter-based distributed energy resources (DERs) continue to proliferate in the distribution systems and provide a significant part of the generation, enhancing the visibility of the system for coupling transmission and distribution networks is becoming essential. The paper offers a monitoring and managing approach based on integrating information from synchrophasors and phasor data concentrators (PDCs) to enhance the deployment of the smart inverter, post their dynamic functions and overcome the decoupling between distribution/transmission operations. The proposed approach includes DER monitoring and managing entity (DER-MME) which communicates with PDC units that can manage the smart inverters functions in real-time during normal/abnormal operation based on a proposed fault detection and localization algorithm. Although the approach can be expanded to include several functions, in the paper, the focus was on the momentary cessation function (MC) and how it can be dynamically controlled by the proposed approach to improve the response of smart inverters. The merit of the proposed approach has been illustrated on several transmission and distribution faults that triggered fault-induced delayed voltage recovery (FIDVR) events which are common in distribution networks.