A Dual-Functional Medium Voltage Level DVR to Limit Downstream Fault Currents

The dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) is a modern custom power device used in power distribution networks to protect consumers from sudden sags (and swells) in grid voltage. Implemented at medium voltage level, the DVR can be used to protect a group of medium voltage or low voltage consumers. However, the DVR will therefore be tasked to mitigate even more faults involving downstream loads. Large fault currents would flow through the DVR during a downstream fault before the opening of a circuit breaker. This will cause the voltage at point of common coupling (PCC) to drop, which would affect the loads on the other parallel feeders connected to PCC. Furthermore, if not controlled properly, the DVR might also contribute to this PCC voltage sag in the process of compensating the missing voltage, thus further worsening the fault situation. To limit the flow of large line currents, and therefore restore the PCC voltage as well as protect the DVR system components, a downstream fault limiting function is proposed and integrated in the DVR operation. A flux-charge-model feedback algorithm is implemented so that the DVR would act as a large virtual inductance in series with the distribution feeder in fault situations. Controlling the DVR as a virtual inductor would also ensure zero real power absorption during the DVR compensation and thus minimize the stress in the dc link. Finally, the proposed fault current limiting algorithm has been tested in Matlab/Simulink simulation and experimentally on a medium voltage level laboratory DVR system.