Transient Stability Analysis for Grid-Forming Inverters Transitioning from Islanded to Grid-Connected Mode

Abstract

This paper addresses the transient stability of grid-forming (GFM) inverters when transitioning from the islanded to grid-connected mode. It is revealed that the reconnection of the GFM inverters to the main grid can be equivalent to a step change of the active power reference, whose impact is closely related with the local load, active power reference of GFM inverter, and short-circuit ratio (SCR) of the grid. Such equivalent disturbance may cause GFM inverters lose the synchronism with the grid. To avoid loss of synchronization, the existence of equilibria of GFM inverter after reconnecting it with the grid is examined, considering the varying SCR. Then, the parametric effects of power controllers on the transient stability are characterized by using phase portraits, which shed clear insights into the controller design for reliably reconnecting GFM inverters with grid. Lastly, all the theoretical findings are confirmed by experimental tests.

Keywords

• Grid-forming inverters
• grid-connected mode
• islanded mode
• local load
• resynchronization
• transient stability