A Riding-through Technique for Seamless Transition between Islanded and Grid-Connected Modes of Droop-Controlled Inverters

Abstract: This paper presents a seamless transition method for a droop-controlled inverter. The droop control is suitable to make the inverter work as a voltage source in both islanded and grid-connected modes, however, the transfer between theses modes can result in a big inrush current that may damage the system. The proposed method allows the droop-controlled inverter to improve the transient response when transferring between modes, by detecting the inrush current, activating a current control loop during transients, and then transferring back to droop-controlled mode smoothly by using a virtual inductance loop. In addition, a local phase-locked-loop (PLL) is proposed to align the inverter voltage with the grid in order to reduce the transient current during the transition. Therefore, the droop-controlled inverter is able to operate in both grid-connected and islanded modes, providing as well a smooth transition between them, requiring neither synchronization signals nor grid-side information. The control algorithm and design procedure are presented. Experimental results from a laboratory prototype validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.