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Volt/Var Control Using Inverter-based Distributed Energy Resources

D. Tom Rizy, Senior Member, Yan Xu, Member, IEEE, Huijuan Li, Member, Fangxing Li, Senior Member, Phil Irminger, Student Member
support provided by DR can alleviate the reactive power shortage at the distribution and transmission levels. DRs, such as reciprocating gen-sets, micro-turbines and fuel cells, provide a means to generate electric power closer to the end-user load more cleanly and efficiently. DRs, such as PVs, fuel cells and most micro-turbines, that generate dc use inverters to generate ac and interface with the distribution system. With the right controls, these DRs can control not only active power (kW) but also reactive power (kVar), to regulate local voltage near the end-user load. DR with a power electronics inverter interface can provide both active power and non-active power simultaneously and independently. In this way, they can regulate voltage by injecting/absorbing reactive power, correct for power factor by injecting/absorbing reactive power while controlling their active power output, or support the distribution system by providing some level of reactive power injection. They provide a faster control capability than capacitor banks both in terms of response and control resolution and a more continuous output versus the discrete output of capacitors. Currently, inverter-based DRs are not permitted to provide local voltage regulation in accordance with the 1547 Std. [3] but a new group, P1547.8 [4], is developing a recommended practice for expanded use of 1547. An area of focus is on situations when local voltage regulation from DR should be allowed. The impetus for this change is high DR penetration, especially PV, expected on some distribution systems. II. VOLT/VAR CONTROL METHODS It is critical to maintain an acceptable voltage range at distribution substations (where the voltage is stepped down from sub-transmission level to distribution level) in order to provide acceptable voltages to end-user loads on distribution feeders and circuits. Voltage regulation via central generator plants support of substations and the use of system-level voltage regulation equipment, such as load-tap-changing (LTCs) and capacitors, in the substations and in distribution circuits ensures this requirement will be met. Distribution engineers dispatch capacitor banks at distribution substations through manual operation or remotely controlled devices. Also, fixed and switchable (e.g., controlled by voltage) capacitor banks and line voltage regulators are used along distribution feeders to provide additional capability to ensure that the end-user loads at the end of distribution feeders receive acceptable voltage such as not less than .95 per unit. 1

AbstractInverter-based distributed energy resource (DR) systems have been designed to provide constant, close to unity power factor and thus do not provide voltage support by producing non-active power in the form of reactive power. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been working on control schemes to provide variable reactive power which is summarized here. The Distributed Energy Communications & Controls Laboratory (DECC) at ORNL is a unique facility for studying dynamic voltage, active power/non-active power and power factor control from inverter-based DR. DECC interfaces with the ORNL campus distribution system to provide actual power system testing. Using mathematical software tools and DECC, ORNL is developing and testing local, autonomous and adaptive controls for local voltage control and active/non-active power control for inverter-based DR. These control algorithms are being tested using a real-time software and processor system interface to our computer controls interface at DECC. The control aspects of voltage regulation and active/non-active power control using inverter-based DR are discussed and simulation and experimental results from testing are presented. Index Terms Distributed Energy Resources, Volt/Var Control, Reactive Power Control, Inverters, Power Electronics

I. INTRODUCTION

he concern for energy reliability and security and the environment has contributed to the growth and development of distributed energy resources (DR) in the U.S. The total installed DR capacity for installations smaller than 5MW in the U.S as of 2004 is estimated to be 195GW [1]. The interconnection of DR with distribution systems can have impacts on traditional system operation and protection [2]. The ability of DR to provide local voltage control at the point of common coupling (PCC) is a useful ancillary service to keep the DR terminal voltage within accepted specified limits and thus provide voltage support for the distribution system/feeder. Also, voltage

D. T. Rizy, Y. Xu and F. Li are with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6070. H. Li is with Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) in the postdoctoral research associates program at ORNL. P. Irminger is with Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) in the postBS research associates program at ORNL. Contact: D. T. Rizy, 1-865-574-5203 (phone) or rizydt@ornl.gov (email). This work was sponsored by the Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR 22725 with UT-Battelle and conducted at ORNL and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

978-1-4577-1002-5/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

With greater DR penetration, the voltage of a distribution substation may be regulated with DR embedded in the demand side rather than with centralized capacitor banks at the distribution substation or capacitor banks in the distribution circuits. In fact, the cost of operation and maintenance (O&M) of capacitor banks, especially those with controls and switchgear, is a significant burden to utilities. In addition, capacitors are least effective when needed the mostat low voltagessince their reactive power capability drops off by voltage squared. A real concern is the variability of renewable DR including wind and PV systems that dont have an energy storage component. With a low penetration of variable PV or wind, such as 10% or less, this may not be a major concern. However, when the penetration level is 20% or higher, the intermittent power source can quickly change the voltage profile dynamically for the feeder. A. Traditional Volt/Var Control Changing transformer taps and switching capacitor banks on/off are two traditional means of local voltage regulation on distribution systems. By adjusting the transformer taps, the transformer turns ratio is increased or decreased to regulate the secondary output voltage. The capability for voltage regulation by transformers is usually within 5% of the rated voltage. This is the most widely used voltage regulation method in power systems, and no additional equipment is required except transformers with tap-changing capability (LTCs). The drawback of this method is that the tap changing is not continuous, does not respond to dynamic voltage variation and the frequent operation increases O&M. If voltage is regulated at a wider range, the installation of capacitor banks is the other traditional and widely-used method. The voltage regulation effect of the capacitor banks is not continuous and the reactive power produced by them drops off with the square of the voltage and thus capacitors provide less voltage regulation capability at lower voltages. These two traditional means of local voltage regulation have some common characteristics. The capital costs are relatively inexpensive, but the maintenance costs can be substantial. Capacitor switching causes a transient in system voltage, which may have a negative impact on sensitive loads. Neither LTCs nor capacitors can control the voltage continuously and they do not have dynamic capability to respond to rapid voltage variations and transients. B. Local Voltage Regulation Local voltage regulation refers to the ability of the enduser to meet a voltage schedule supplied by the utility. If the customer were equipped with DR that could dynamically supply reactive power to regulate voltage, local voltage could be regulated to maintain voltage within a required operating band, such as .95 to 1.05 per unit. DRs are not allowed to regulate voltage with reactive power control on the distribution system per the IEEE 1547 Std. This restriction needs to change for high DR penetration, especially PV-based since there are advantages to allowing DR to regulate voltage locally and dynamically by injecting reactive power on the distribution system. One 2

benefit is improving feeder capacity by reducing the reactive current flow from the substation to the load and subsequently reducing losses [5-7]. A new P1547.8 working group [4] is working on a recommended practice to address the high DR penetration issue and to identify cases in which local voltage regulation should be permitted. C. Power Electronics-Based Volt/Var Control Local voltage regulation methods with real-time voltage control capability and fast transient response are playing a more important role in the distribution level due to the demand for high-quality power. The SVC (series var compensator), STATCOM (static synchronous compensator), SC (synchronous condenser) and DR are some of the devices capable of performing local dynamic voltage regulation and having the potential to provide, dynamic reactive power with the first three being system level while the fourth is end-user level. There are several types of DR such as micro-turbines, industrial gas turbines, fuel cells, reciprocating engine generators, PVs, and wind turbines. They have great potential for local voltage regulation by generating or absorbing reactive power for two reasons. First, a powerelectronics-based interface is required for most DR. By modifying the control scheme, the interface not only can control active power but also reactive power from the DR to the utility. An inverter capacity size of 10% higher can allow the DR to provide the original active power requirement along with reactive power for a power factor of 0.90 leading or lagging. Second, the distributed location of DR is ideally suited for voltage regulation. III. DR INVERTER CONTROL Feedback control is used in most dynamic reactive resources, including SVC, STATCOM, and DR. Feedback control compares the differences (errors) between the actual values of the system variables (controlled variables) and the desired values (references) and uses this error to determine and send control signals to the controlled system. In a robust and stable feedback control system, the controlled variables track the references at steady state and reach the value of the reference after a desired period of time during a transient. The time to respond to a transient is exponential, and normally the steady-state condition is reached after five time constants. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is a widely used feedback controller. There are three parts of the controller: (1) the proportional part that determines the reaction to the present error between the reference and actual value, (2) the integral part that determines the reaction to the sum of the recent errors, and (3) the derivative part that determines the reaction to the rate at which the error has been changing. A PI controller is the most commonly used feedback controller in which the derivative part is dropped because it is very sensitive to measurement noise which can be aggravated by inverter operation. In the design of a PI controller, the proportional gain (Kp) and the integral gain (Ki) are the two control constants determined by the

characteristics of the system to be controlled and the control objective and strategy. In a PI controller, inappropriate choices of the control gain constants (Kp, Ki) can result in unsatisfactory performance of the controlled system (such as when they are both too low), system oscillation (when one or both are too high), or at worst system instability (when one or both are way too high). System oscillation or instability must be avoided by selecting appropriate control gain constants. If all the system parameters are known, Kp and Ki can be determined by setting up the mathematical model of the system and the controller. Otherwise, the controller gains must be set by a trial/error method or by a learning process. IV. INVERTER CONTROL SCHEMES ORNL has developed PI control schemes for local voltage regulation and active/reactive power control of inverterbased DR systems based on the instantaneous power theory [8]. These schemes use a heuristic technique which has been verified theoretically [9-10]. Two types have been developed: (1) control schemes based on fixed control gains and (2) control schemes based on adaptive control gains. Initially, the work started with (1) but the control schemes were not to be fast enough in responding to voltage transients to guarantee no interference with system equipment, such as line regulators. In (2), the control gains are adaptive (increase/decrease) during the voltage transient to more quickly dampen it, settle to steady-state and prevent voltage instability; otherwise they are kept fixed at the initial settings. For the active/reactive power control, the adaptive gain scheme is used. A. Voltage Regulation with inverter-based DR The basic idea of voltage regulation is to compare the controlled voltage and the reference voltage and then use the instantaneous difference (error) and the accumulated difference as feedback signals to eventually change the controlled voltage to match the reference voltage within a control tolerance. The parameter to scale the instantaneous voltage difference is the proportional gain, Kp, and the parameter to scale the accumulated voltage difference is the integral gain, Ki. The general PI feedback control scheme is shown in Figure 1.

The voltage response time for the DR should be so quick that it will not interfere with conventional utility system voltage control. A response time of 0.5 s (equivalent to 30 cycles at 60 Hz) was selected because it should be invisible to utility voltage control. Because 30 cycles is considered by utilities as an appropriate response time for devices interconnected to the utility grid, it is used in the adaptive control as the 5 (five time constants) decay time of the ideal exponential curve. By adjusting the values of Kp and Ki so that the error of the controller tracks an ideal exponential curve, the response time of the voltage control is regulated to 0.5 s. In this way the DR responds to the voltage change and resets its reactive power output well before the conventional utility equipment begins any level of control. In other words, fast rapid control is transparent to the utility system control. B. Voltage Stability of Single DR The voltage regulation by the inverter-based DR with proportional-integral (PI) control is shown in Figure 2a-d with different combinations of control gains (Kp, Ki). The response of the local voltage regulation can be affected by the selection of the control gains. In these figures, the voltage regulation is using the reference value of 268V in the simulation. The PCC voltage was 263V before regulation. From 0 to 0.3 s, there is no regulation; from 0.3s to 1.5s, compensation is performed by the DR to regulate the voltage. In the figure, the straight green line is the reference voltage, and the blue plot is the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC). Figure 2a shows a stable but slow voltage response when the gains are too low. The voltage isnt able to reach the reference value even after 1.3s. Figure 2b shows the voltage regulation with an overshoot and oscillations for some time (at least 0.9s) before settling due to the gains being high. Figure 2c shows an unstable voltage regulation due to the gains being too high with oscillations swinging from 266V to 270V after 1.2 s. Figure 2d shows a desirable dynamic response with well-designed gains but when the control gains are outside this range, the system becomes unstable, as shown in Figure 2c. C. Current Limiting Control Limiting the current output of the inverter is important in the case of a large transient, such as a large change in voltage [10]. If the current output were not limited, the inverter would trip out on over-current protection when the voltage change was severe. This is desirable only in case of a local fault; otherwise, it is preferred that the inverter produce up to its capability to continue supporting local voltage to the best of its ability. Without this control capability, the inverter would trip out and any support that it could provide would be lost. For current control, the inverter switches from voltage regulation to current regulation when the inverter current starts to exceed its rated or preset limit. Thus, current control prevents the inverter from tripping out when a large transient occurs unless the transient is a fault. Current regulation works much like voltage regulation: the average rms current for all three phases is calculated and compared with a current limit. If the current is below the 3

Figure 1. Feedback controller for voltage regulation.

In an ideal PI control process, the response of the control system to a step change is an exponential decay curve with the largest error at the beginning of the step change and the actual variable approaching the reference. By adjusting the values of Kp and Ki, the time constant of this exponential curve is changed; i.e., the speed of the response is changed.

limit, the inverter switches back to voltage regulation mode. However, if the current comes near or reaches the limit, it is regulated to the reference current. The control switches back to voltage regulation mode only when the current drops below the limit again.
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time(s) (a) Voltage regulation with low gains (Kp=0.01, Ki=0.1) .


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D. Balanced Voltage Regulation with adaptive gains and current control Figure 3 shows the configuration for an inverter-based DR interfaced with the utilitys distribution system. The upper portion shows a power system, which is simplified as an infinite bus with a utility voltage (vs), system impedance (Ls, Rs) and an RL load. The lower portion is the DR with its inverter, controller and coupling inductor Lc. The output voltage and current of the inverter are designated as vc and ic, respectively. The control approach [9] uses a PI control as shown in Figure 4 to dynamically regulate the average voltage of the three-phase voltages to the reference level. PI control calculates the error between the average and the reference rms voltage to determine the reference output voltage of the inverter. Pulse width modulation (PWM) signals are generated based on the reference output voltage and fed to the switch gate-drives of the inverter. The average rms voltage, updated at every sample, is the average of the three phase voltages. When the magnitude of the voltage produced by the inverter is higher than the system voltage, the inverter is injecting reactive power, and the inverter current is leading the system voltage. In this case, the inverter is raising the local voltage. When the magnitude of the voltage produced by the inverter is lower than the system voltage, the inverter is absorbing reactive power, and the inverter current is lagging the system voltage. In this case, the inverter is lowering the system voltage.

voltage(v)

voltage(v)
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(b) Voltage regulation with high gains (Kp=0.2, Ki=3.0).


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(c) Unstable voltage regulation due to gains (Kp=1.0, Ki=7.0)


being too high.
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Figure 3. Inverter-based DR interfaced with utility distribution system.

voltage(v)

Figure 4. PI controller diagram.


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(d) Voltage regulation with correct gains (Kp=0.03, Ki=0.8).


Figure 2. Voltage regulation with different control gains for single DR.

Normally the gains of the PI controller, in this case the proportional gain (Kp) and the integral gain (Ki), stay constant for voltage regulation regardless of whether the system is in steady state (very little change in voltage) or transient (a large voltage change such as due to a large 4

motor start or load step change). Normally, the best gain values are determined and left fixed for the control. However, it is helpful for the gain to change dynamically (adaptively) during a transient, depending upon the severity of the voltage error (difference between actual and reference voltage). The techniques for both adaptive and non-adaptive control are described in [9-10]. Figure 5 shows the (1) no voltage regulation, (2) balanced voltage regulation with fixed gains and (3) balanced voltage regulation with adaptive gains in response to a local voltage transient of 2V.

(DECC) Laboratory1. In the figure, the straight red line is the reference voltage, and the blue plot is the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC). The voltage reference for the balanced voltage regulation using non-adaptive gains is 266.5V. The voltage reference for the balanced voltage regulation using adaptive gains is 268V. They are different since they were tested on different days under different distribution system operating conditions. The voltage regulation without adaptive gains shows that it takes just under 4s to reach steady-state again following the transient. However, in the case of the voltage regulation with adaptive controls, it is much faster and takes only 0.5s to reach steady-state again following the transient. Adaptive gain control employs a step response for a voltage change that closely fits the exponential ideal response and reduces the voltage error to zero in five time constants. The time constant depends on the response capability of the DR. The PI gains change only during the transient; they are thus unchanged before and after the transient event. Limits are set on the gains to prevent voltage overshoot or undershoot during the transition and to avoid voltage instability (voltage oscillations) as well. E. Unbalanced Voltage Regulation The approach for unbalanced voltage regulation uses the rms voltage calculation for each of the three phase-to-neutral voltages and compares each to the reference (one setting for all three) to determine the voltage errors for each phase. Each phase of the inverter is controlled independently to correct the voltage error. To compensate for the unbalance in each phase, the threephase voltages are controlled separately, instead of the average value of the three-phase voltages, which is the control scheme in section IID. However, the requirements of the inverter current ratings, the inverter dc side voltage rating, and the inverter dc side capacitor rating are higher than the balanced voltage regulation case. In power systems, most voltage unbalance conditions are due to magnitude inequalities while the phase-angles are equal (120 or 2/3) or nearly equal. If the voltage unbalance is in this category and the inequalities in the magnitudes are not very large (less than 1%), the DR with an inverter interface can compensate for the voltage unbalance by providing reactive power. By controlling the three-phase magnitudes of the inverter voltage, vc, individually, the rms values of the three phase PCC voltages, vt, are controlled at a given reference level. Figure 6 shows results for the unbalanced voltage compensation. Figure 6a shows the waveforms of the threephase rms voltages (Vrms) and the reference voltage (267.7 V). The high-frequency switching (12.5 kHz) which was used to control the inverter creates some EMI noise on the signal but this can be eliminated with better shielding for the instrumentation. As shown in Figure 6, from t = 0 to t = 7.1s, the inverter is operated in the unbalanced voltage compensation mode and after t = 7.1 s, it is turned off. While the inverter is on and operating, the three-phase voltages are
1 The DECC Lab provides real-world testing/operation for inverter-based DR since it is interfaced to the ORNL campus distribution system which is one of the 159 TVA distributors.

(a) No voltage regulation by inverter in response to transient.

(b) Voltage regulation with fixed control gains.

(c) Voltage regulation with adaptive control gains.


Figure 5. Balanced voltage regulation of inverter-based DR.

The experimental results shown are from testing at ORNLs Distributed Energy Communications & Controls 5

regulated at the reference level and nearly balanced, and while the inverter is off, the voltages are unbalanced and lower than the reference. Figure 6b shows the three-phase rms inverter currents (Arms) produced by the inverter to balance and regulate the voltages. The maximum current is 70A (phase c) while the minimum current is only 20A (phase b).

The decoupled feedback control diagram is shown in Figure 7. In the reactive power control loop, the amplitude of the instantaneous inverter output voltage, vc(t), is controlled by the PI controller PI1, where Icn* is the inverter current reference, Icn is the actual value, and Kp1 and Ki1 are the proportional and integral gains of PI1. Using the PCC voltage as its reference, the amplitude of the inverter output voltage is modified based on the amount of the reactive power. The result of this control loop is v*c1(t), which is in phase with the PCC voltage vt(t).

(a) PCC line-to-neutral voltages (Vrms).

Figure 7. Active and reactive power control diagram.

(b) Inverter phase currents (Arms). Figure 6. Unbalanced voltage compensation control.

F. Active and Reactive Power Control A decoupled control algorithm of active power and reactive power has been developed [10]. Combining a decoupled control with a current limiter ensures that the inverter is not overloaded. Using this DR algorithm, the inverters active current and reactive current are controlled directly, simultaneously, and independently. The active power has higher priority over the non-active power, and maximum non-active power is generated within the inverters capability. This allows the energy from a DR to be fully transferred to the grid and non-active power to be provided to the grid. This control algorithm allows the inverters capabilities to be taken full advantage of at all times, both in terms of functionality as well as within the inverters capability such as its kVA rating.2 The active power, P(t), and reactive power, Q(t), can be controlled indirectly and independently by controlling the active current Ica(t) and reactive current Icn(t), which are the rms values of the instantaneous active and reactive current.
2 The inverter may be de-rated to account for additional thermal heating due to high-speed switching to provide faster dynamic performance.

The inverter active power control is controlled by adjusting the phase angle of the inverter output voltage. The phase angle of vc(t) is controlled by the PI controller PI2, where Ica* is the active current reference, and Ica is the actual value. The active current reference Ica* and the non-active current reference Icn* can be calculated according to the preset active power reference and reactive power reference [10]. By adding the current limiter to the controller, the active current reference and the reactive current reference settings are modified so that the inverters current will not exceed the current limit. The inverter can be controlled to provide variable or fixed active power along with variable or fixed reactive power. In other words, both active and reactive power can be controlled at all times. Examples of active and reactive power control under two different scenarios are shown next. 1) Active Power Control with Reactive Power Held Fixed: Active power control with a set level of reactive power output is shown in Figure 8. The active power reference (Pref) is increased from 10 to 50 kW, and the nonactive power reference (Qref) is set at 10 kVar. Figure 8a-c show the active power (P), the reactive power (Q) and the inverter rms current (ic). The current is the average of the three phase-to-neutral values of the inverter. In Figure 8a-b, the red lines are the active power reference and reactive power reference, respectively. The blue plots in the figures are the actual P and Q measured during the operation of the inverter. Before the active power reference is changed, the inverter current is below the current limit (60A). When the inverter current exceeds the current limit, the current limiter is triggered. The active and reactive current references are calculated based on the current limit so that the total current is limited to 60 A. 2) Reactive Power Control with Active Power Held Fixed: Reactive power control that is variable with a set level of active power output is shown in Figure 9. The active 6

power reference (Pref) is set to 20kW while the reactive power reference (Qref) increases from 20 to 50 kVar. Figure 9a-c shows the active power (P), the reactive power (Q) and the inverter rms current (ic). As earlier, the current is the average of the three phase-to-neutral values of the inverter.

indicated above, the current limit is triggered after the current reaches above 60 A.

(a) Active power and reference.

(a) Active power and reference.

(b)

Reactive power and reference.

(b)

Reactive power and reference.

(c) Inverter current. Figure 9. Variable reactive power control with fixed active power.

(c) Inverter current. Figure 8. Variable active power control with fixed non-active power.

When the P and Q references are 20 kW and 20 kVar, the actual values are tracking the references very well. However, when the reactive power reference is increased to 50 kVar, the reactive power increases until the inverter current reaches the current limit. Thus, the actual reactive power is lower than the reference since the limit is exceeded. As

G. Smart Inverter Control Ultimately, the goal is to have an inverter-based DR that can be commanded via communications depending upon system conditions to change control modes. During normal conditions, the inverter may be controlled to provide some level of reactive power along with operating at some active power level. If the reactive power is kept at a fixed level, it wouldnt regulate voltage but would offset the reactive power needed from the substation. The reactive power on the other hand could be varied to regulate voltage to 7

maintain a reference setting within some tolerance. The reference could be communicated to the DR, such as provided by the utility, to achieve a desired voltage profile based either on calculations from a model or measured data points or both. Also, the control of multiple inverter-based DR systems, which provides active control of voltage or active/reactive power, needs to be understood. We are completing a second inverter-based DR test system at DECC which will be used to develop and conduct testing of multiple systems. V. CONCLUSIONS A summary of using a local feedback control scheme for inverter-based distributed energy resource (DR) to dynamically regulate local voltage while limiting current is presented. The scheme that we use is near-real time and calculates the rms of the local voltage in every sample and uses it as input for a PI controller for the inverter PWM to vary reactive power output. The feedback controller operates by comparing actual voltage based on the calculated rms with a reference setting, which can be based on a utilityspecified voltage schedule, to determine the voltage error. The error and PI controller gains determine the new output for the inverter. The controller also can provide current control. While the inverter is in voltage control mode, the current control mode activates when the control calls for current beyond the inverters capability or to which it has been limited. The inverter will switch from current mode to voltage mode only if the actual inverter current is below the current limit. The current control mode ensures that the inverter does not operate beyond its rated (thermal or electrical) capability and thus ensures continuous support of system voltage for various voltage transients unless a nearby fault necessitates that the inverter trip out or in accordance with protection coordination. The control scheme for balanced voltages can maintain the voltage within 0.1 V of the reference voltage. However, unbalanced voltage regulation requires more inverter current output capability and higher dc link voltage along with some additional computations; instead of one rms calculation as in the balanced mode, there are now three. But the extra calculations do not impact the unbalanced control implementation. Adaptive PI control continuously calculates what new gain is needed during a voltage transient to follow the exponential time response curve of the inverter based on voltage error and time. However, it changes the gain only when a significant difference between the actual and reference voltage values exists, such as greater or equal to 1 V. Otherwise, the gain is kept fixed since, the transient is perceived to be mild enough to be handled by the existing PI gain settings. Adaptive control gains ensure a time response of 0.5 s which prevents DR interaction with conventional utility system equipment for regulating system voltage. VI. REFERENCES
[1] F. Li, J. Kueck, T. Rizy, and T. King, 2006, A Preliminary Analysis of the Economics of using Distributed Energy as a Source of Reactive

Power Supply, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN, ORNL/TM-2006/014, Apr. 2006. [2] J. Driesen and R. Belmans, Distributed Generation: Challenges and Possible Solutions, IEEE PES General Meeting, pp. 8, 2006. [3] Information on the 1547 series of interconnection standards can be found at http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/scc21/dr_shared/. The 1547 standard is available from the IEEE Standards Association at http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/1547-2003.html. [4] See http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/scc21/1547.8/1547.8_index.html. [5] D. T. Rizy and R. H. Staunton, Evaluation of Distribution Analysis Software for DR Applications, ORNL/TM-2001/215, September 2002, http://certs.lbl.gov/pdf/eval-of-der-02.pdf. [6] John D. Kueck, Brendan Kirby, D. Tom Rizy, Fangxing Li, and Ndeye Fall, "Reactive Power from Distributed Energy," The Electricity Journal, vol. 19, no. 10, pp. 27-38, December 2006. [7] D. T. Rizy, F. Li; H. Li; S. Adhikari and J. D Kueck, "Properly Understanding the Impacts of Distributed Resources on Distribution Systems," 2010 IEEE PES General Meeting, pp.1-5, July 2010. [8] Yan Xu, L. M. Tolbert, J. N. Chiasson, F. Z. Peng, J. B. Campbell, "A Generalized Instantaneous Nonactive Power Theory for STATCOM," IET Electric Power Applications, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 853-861, Nov. 2007. [9] H. Li, F. Li, Y. Xu, D. T. Rizy and J. D. Kueck, Adaptive Voltage Control with Distributed Energy Resources: Algorithm, Theoretical Analysis, Simulation, and Field Test Verification, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol.25, no.3, pp.1638-1647, Aug. 2010. [10] Y. Xu, H. Li, D. T. Rizy, F. Li, and J. D. Kueck, "Instantaneous active and nonactive power control of distributed energy resources with a current limiter," 2010 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), pp.3855-3861, Sept. 12-16, 2010.

VII. BIOGRAPHIES
D. Tom Rizy (SM87) is a senior research power systems engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the Power and Energy Systems Group. He is a cofounder of the Distributed Energy Communications and Control Laboratory (DECC) at ORNL for testing dynamic voltage regulation controls using distributed energy resources. He has over 33 years experience in power systems R&D and received his MSEE and BSEE from Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, respectively. Yan Xu (S02M06) received the B.S. degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China, in 1995, the M.S. degree from North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2006. She is currently a research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN. Huijuan Li (S07, M10) is working as POSTDOC associate for Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the ORAU program. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from The University of Tennessee in 2010 and her B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. in electrical engineering from North China Electrical Power University, China in 1999 and 2002 respectively. She previously worked as a research engineer at Shanghai Sieyuan Electrical Company in China on the field of ungrounded neutral distribution systems. Fangxing (Fran) Li (M01, SM05) received the Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech in 2001. He has been an Assistant Professor at The University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, TN and an adjunct researcher at ORNL since August 2005. Prior to joining UT, he worked at ABB, Raleigh, NC, as a senior and then a principal engineer for four and a half years. His current interests include energy market, reactive power, and distributed energy resources. Dr. Li is a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina. Phil Irminger is an MS student in Electrical Engineering at The University of Tennessee and is working as a POSTBS associate for Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the ORAU program. He received his B.S (Electrical Engineering) from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2009.

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