Time-domain analysis of custom power parks based on the Poincaré map method

• A first accelerated time-domain study to investigate the operation of custom power parks is presented.
• The Poincaré map method provides a highly efficient alternative to determine the periodic steady-state solution.
• The custom power park representation is suitable to carry out power quality and harmonic analyses.
• The use of a fuel cell instead of a diesel generator as an auxiliary source alleviates a total feeder loss scenario.
• Significant savings in the computational effort up to 372 times are obtained with the Poincaré acceleration.

An acceleration procedure to the periodic steady-state based on the Poincaré map and a Newton method is applied in this paper to compute periodic solutions of custom power parks. This method serves as a tool to assist in quickly locating periodic solutions in order to carry out efficient harmonic analyses at the distribution level. The time domain model of the custom power park comprises a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR), a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), a static transfer switch and a distributed generator. Whilst a STATCOM maintains constant the bus voltage and the DC-link capacitor voltage, a DVR feeds critical loads with distortion-free voltages. The distributed generator relies on a fuel cell and a two stage power electronic interface. Fuel cells are faster and less polluting than internal combustion engines, providing a reliable backup power during a total feeder loss scenario. Furthermore, the effect of the transformer nonlinear characteristic, which may cause inrush currents and prolonged transients during energization or feeder switching, is taken into account. Results show that the execution time demanded by a brute force approach to compute the periodic steady-state of the custom power park can be dramatically reduced with the application of the time domain acceleration procedure. Important speedup gains up to 372 are obtained with the Poincaré acceleration.