Analyzing the Impact of Grid Connected Distributed Micro-Hydro Generation Under Various Fault Conditions

Distributed Generation (DG), deploying small power sources of localized nature, has emerged as a well accepted alternative to the conventional power generation due to its cost effectiveness for peak sharing or increasing load capacity. It is generally connected to the distribution system to work along with the main grid to supply electric power but may operate in islanding mode in case of a fault or any electrical contingency at the main grid system. DG is mostly based upon clean renewable energy technologies. However, amongst various options, distributed micro-hydro generation is considered the most cost-competitive to fossil fuels. In addition, it has high efficiency and capacity factor, and reduced rate of change in comparison to the same size of wind and solar based distributed generations. Therefore, this paper engages micro-hydro as distributed generation to analyze its response under various fault conditions considering grid connected mode (gc-mode) and islanding mode (i-mode) one by one. The proposed system is modeled and simulated in SIMULINK to perform the fault analysis. The results indicate that the magnitude of fault current under various faults is comparable for gc-mode and i-mode. However, the system becomes stable more rapidly for i-mode than the gc-mode.