Validation of Solar Photovoltaic Inverter Behavior to Grid Disturbances through Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing

Commercial distributed photovoltaic (DPV) inverters need to comply with standards and guidelines defined by local utilities and distribution system operators. However, due to lack of clear guideline in standards about the performance of inverters under certain types of grid disturbances, these inverters can exhibit a diverse range of responses. As power systems begin to accommodate larger quantities of generation from DPVs their response becomes critical to system security. Power hardware-in-the-loop (PHiL) testing is used in this paper to analyze the behavior of commercial DPV inverters under various grid disturbances. One of the key advantages of this approach is the integration of detailed distribution network models in the testing. The voltage on the point of common coupling (PCC) of the DPV inverter can thus be similar to practical conditions. Experimental tests on multiple commercial DPV inverters are performed to validate the proposed approach and its importance in identifying the interaction of inverters with grid disturbances. The results also demonstrate the need for extensive network-oriented testing of DPV inverters beyond standards compliance.