Grid-Forming Voltage-Source Inverter for Hybrid Wind-Solar Systems Interfacing Weak Grids

Abstract

This paper presents a grid-forming (GFM) voltage-source inverter (VSI) with direct current regulation for a hybrid wind-solar generator, enabling stable operation at very weak grid conditions and under faults. The GFM-VSI interfaces a hybrid wind-solar generator without an intermediate dc-dc conversion to increase the system efficiency. The wind generator comprises a wind turbine with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) interfaced by a voltage-source rectifier (VSR). The PMSG-VSR and a solar photovoltaic (PV) array are connected to the GFM-VSI's dc-side. The VSR is responsible for extracting wind power with a power reserve option. The GFM-VSI is implemented to extract solar power with a power reserve capability and support the grid voltage or reactive power. The stable operation of the proposed system is validated under very weak grid conditions, and it is shown that a similar hybrid wind-solar system with grid-following control is unstable under the same weak grid conditions. A complete small-signal state-space model of the proposed hybrid system is developed and analyzed. Nonlinear time-domain simulations and real-time simulation tests verify the model's accuracy and show the proposed system's effective performance under challenging operating scenarios, such as grid uncertainties and faults.

Keywords

• Current control
• grid following
• grid forming
• phase-locked loops
• power control
• solar energy