Feeding electric power from a photovoltaic system into an AC system having a low short-circuit capacity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11557899-B2
Application number	US-202015930666-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 13, 2020
Priority date	Nov 16, 2017
Publication date	Jan 17, 2023
Grant date	Jan 17, 2023

Abstract

A method and associated apparatus for feeding electric power from a photovoltaic system via a grid connection point into an AC grid having a low short-circuit power is disclosed. The method includes connecting a DC voltage side of at least one first inverter of the photovoltaic system to a photovoltaic generator and an AC voltage side of the at least one first inverter to the grid connection point, wherein the at least one first inverter is operated as a current source, and connecting an AC voltage side of a second inverter of the photovoltaic system to the grid connection point, wherein the second inverter is operated as a voltage source based on measurement values of an AC voltage measured in the region of the photovoltaic system and a predefined characteristic curve. For a first total short-circuit power of all first inverters operated as a current source, and a second total short-circuit power of the AC grid and of the second inverter operated as a voltage source, a ratio of the second total short-circuit power to the first total short-circuit power is greater than or equal to 2.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for feeding electric power from a photovoltaic system via a grid connection point into an AC grid having a low short-circuit power, comprising:
connecting a DC voltage side of at least one first inverter of the photovoltaic system to a photovoltaic generator and an AC voltage side of the at least one first inverter to the grid connection point, wherein the at least one first inverter is operated as a current source, and
connecting an AC voltage side of a second inverter of the photovoltaic system to the grid connection point, wherein the second inverter is operated as a voltage source based on measurement values of an AC voltage measured at the photovoltaic system and a voltage droop curve,
wherein for a first total short-circuit power of all first inverters operated as the current source, and a second total short-circuit power of the AC grid and of the second inverter operated as the voltage source, a ratio of the second total short-circuit power to the first total short-circuit power is greater than or equal to 2,
wherein active power and reactive power are fed in at the grid connection point by the second inverter,
wherein the at least one first inverter is connected to the photovoltaic generator on the DC voltage side via a first DC link circuit having a first link circuit capacitance,
wherein the second inverter is connected on its DC voltage side to a second DC link circuit having a second link circuit capacitance that is greater than the first link circuit capacitance by at least 100%, and
wherein the second inverter is a bidirectional inverter.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the second inverter of the photovoltaic system operated as the voltage source comprises a single second inverter.

3. A photovoltaic system for carrying out the method for feeding electric power from the photovoltaic system via the grid connection point into the AC grid having the low short-circuit power as claimed in claim 1 .

4. The photovoltaic system as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising at least one of a lithium-ion battery and a super capacitor connected to the second DC link circuit.

5. The photovoltaic system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the AC grid is a three-phase grid and the second inverter is a three-phase inverter.

6. The photovoltaic system as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising another photovoltaic generator connected to the second DC link circuit.

7. An inverter system, comprising:
a first inverter having a DC input terminal configured to connect to a photovoltaic device or other DC power generating device, and having an AC output terminal coupled to a grid connection point terminal, wherein the first inverter is operated as a current source; and
a second inverter having a DC input terminal configured to connect to an energy store, and an AC output terminal coupled to the grid connection point terminal,
wherein the second inverter is configured to operate as a voltage source based on one or more measurement values of an AC voltage associated with the grid connection point terminal and a voltage droop curve,
wherein active power and reactive power are fed in at the grid connection point terminal by the second inverter,
wherein the first inverter is connected to the photovoltaic device on the DC input terminal via a first DC link circuit having a first link circuit capacitance,
wherein the second inverter is connected on its DC input terminal to a second DC link circuit having a second link circuit capacitance that is greater than the first link circuit capacitance by at least 100%,
wherein the second inverter is a bidirectional inverter,
wherein a first total short-circuit power of the first inverter and a second total short-circuit power of an AC grid and the second inverter is controlled at a predefined ratio range, and
wherein the predefined ratio range is a ratio of the second total short-circuit power and the first total short-circuit power, and is a ratio of 2:1 or greater.

8. The inverter system of claim 7 , wherein the energy store comprises at least one of a lithium-ion battery and a super capacitor connected to the second DC link circuit.

9. The inverter system of claim 7 , wherein the energy store comprises another photovoltaic generator connected to the second DC link circuit.

Assignees

• Sma Solar Technology Ag

Inventors

• Premm Daniel
• Sakschewski Vitali

Classifications

• H02J3/381

  Dispersed generators · CPC title

• H02J3/50

  Controlling the sharing of reactive power · CPC title

• H02J3/1814

  having reactive elements actively controlled by bridge converters, e.g. unified power flow controllers [UPFC] or controlled series voltage compensators · CPC title

• H02J3/40

  Synchronisation of generators for connection to a network or to another generator · CPC title

• H02J3/48

  Controlling the sharing of active power · CPC title