Control of a plurality of inverters connected to a common grid connection point

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10027123-B2
Application number	US-201414571481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2014
Priority date	Jun 28, 2012
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

In order to control a plurality of inverters, which are connected on their input side to a current source each and on their output side to a common grid connection point, electrical variables are measured at the individual inverters and are used for controlling the individual inverters, currents being output by the individual inverters depending on the electrical variables measured at the location of the individual inverters Effects of the connection equipment between the individual inverters and the common grid connection point on currents are determined, electrical variables being measured at the grid connection point and are set in relation to the electrical variables measured at the same time at the individual inverters. The connection equipment between the individual inverters and the common grid connection point is taken into consideration in controlling the individual inverters.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of controlling a plurality of inverters, which are connected to a current source each on their input side and to a common grid connection point on their output side, comprising:
measuring electrical variables at the individual inverters and using the measured electrical variable to control the individual inverters, wherein currents are output by the individual inverters depending on the electrical variables measured at the individual inverters;
determining effects of connection equipment between the individual inverters and the common grid connection point on currents output by the individual inverters, wherein the determining comprises operating the inverters in accordance with a preset measurement program; and
measuring electrical variables at the grid connection point and setting the electrical variables at the grid connection point in relation to the electrical variables measured at the same time at the individual inverters,
wherein the determined effects of the connection equipment between the individual inverters and the common grid connection point are taken into consideration in controlling the individual inverters,
wherein operating the inverters in accordance with the preset measurement program comprises varying the control of the individual inverters depending on the electrical variables measured at the individual inverters.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the effects of the connection equipment comprises covering potential operating ranges of the inverters.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the effects of the connection equipment comprises controlling at least one of the plurality of inverters depending on at least one external variable other than the electrical variables measured at the location of the individual inverters.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein operating the inverters in accordance with the preset measurement program comprises varying the control of the individual inverters separately from one another depending on electrical variables measured at the location of the individual inverters.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the respective other inverters in which the control is not being varied at that time are operated at or close to their normal operating point in the case of the present measured values.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising modifying control curves, which are used in controlling the individual inverters and which are depending on the electrical variables measured at the location of the individual inverters, as a function of at least one electrical variable measured at the individual inverters in order to take the associated connection equipment into consideration.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein control curves used in controlling the individual inverters are modified as a function of at least one internal electrical variable of the respective inverter in order to take the associated connection equipment into consideration.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein control curves which are used in controlling the individual inverters for outputting reactive power as a function of an externally applied voltage or for outputting active power as a function of a frequency of the voltage applied externally, are modified depending on the active power fed by the respective inverter in order to take the associated connection equipment into consideration.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the control curves used in controlling the individual inverters are modified in order to individually compensate for the effects of the connection equipment of the individual inverter.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the control curves used in controlling the individual inverters are modified in order to make changes to feed parameters at the grid connection point as demanded by changing external electrical variables measured at the individual inverters selectively by means of such inverters, which are configured to change these feed parameters with the highest total efficiency in respect of the effects of the connection equipment.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the changes to feed parameters at the grid connection point are only performed by those inverters which are configured to change these feed parameters with the highest total efficiency in respect of the effects of the connection equipment.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising measuring the connection equipment again only when the connection equipment and/or one or more of the inverters and/or one or more of the current sources connected to the inverters has been changed.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical variables are measured at the grid connection point on a secondary side of a transformer connecting the inverters to an AC grid.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the current sources connected to the inverters comprise PV generators or electric machines with connected windwheels or internal combustion engines or fuel cells, and storage systems for electrical energy.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the current sources connected to the inverters comprise batteries or electric machines with connected flywheel masses or hydrogen stores with reversible fuel cells or with combinations of fuel cells and hydrolyzers.

Assignees

• Sma Solar Technology Ag

Inventors

• Fawzy Yehia Tarek
• Premm Daniel
• Sakschewski Vitali
• Stevens Stijn
• Tschendel Christian

Classifications

• Y02E40/30

  Reactive power compensation · CPC title

• H02J3/38 Primary

  Arrangements for feeding a single network from two or more generators or sources in parallel; Arrangements for feeding already energised networks from additional generators or sources in parallel · CPC title

• H02J3/18 Primary

  Arrangements for adjusting, eliminating or compensating reactive power in networks · CPC title

• H02M7/44

  by static converters · CPC title

• Y10T307/707

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic