Investigation on voltage sags caused by DG anti-islanding protection

This paper investigates the voltage sag caused by distributed generation anti-islanding protection. This is a new power-quality concern associated with distributed generation expansion. Anti-islanding protection aims to disconnect distributed generators immediately after the opening of a recloser. As a consequence, after the reclosing operation, voltage sag will occur in some parts of the distribution system, since the loads are energized immediately but the generators are no longer present. In this context, this work presents the findings on our investigations about this problem. The results show that the resulting voltage sag level can violate power-quality limits. Thus, a set of indices has been introduced to characterize the severity of the voltage sag, and a load flow-based method has been proposed to predict the phenomenon. Sensitivity studies are also conducted in order to identify some key factors that influence this type of voltage depression.