Modeling the three-phase short-circuit contribution of photovoltaic systems in balanced power systems

A high penetration of Photovoltaic (PV) systems into power networks can alter the fault currents and negatively impacts on the operation of the protection systems. In this paper, a new analytical model of the fault contribution of a three-phase PV system equipped with a voltage source converter is proposed. Such a model extends the classical steady-state short-circuit analysis to balanced active power networks including PV systems, with the aim to analyze their impact on the breaking capacity of the interrupting devices. The proposed model: (i) takes into account environmental conditions and VSC current limits; (ii) includes the effects of reactive power injections by a detailed representation of different type of VSC control systems; and (iii) can be easily integrated in a software package for power system analysis. The proposed approach is validated by comparing analytical results with time-domain simulations of the IEEE benchmark PV system. Furthermore, it is used to evaluate the impact of a large penetration of PV systems on the fault currents.