A new technique for islanding detection using voltage phase angle of inverter-based DGs

•A new technique for islanding detection is presented.•The adverse effects of this method on the power quality are negligible.•This method is simple to implement and detect an island in a sufficient time.•This method does not cause any problems for the power system during load switching, with unbalanced loads or multiple DGs.

In this paper, a new method is studied for the islanding detection of an inverter based distribution generation. The use of parameters at PCC (such as deviation of the voltage and frequency) as a feedback has been considered by researchers. The variation of voltage angle is used as a feedback in the proposed method. After an islanding occurrence the variation of voltage phase angle can change the references of active and reactive powers. The power variations cause the voltage and frequency deviations as detection parameters. The performance of islanding detection of the proposed method is investigated under the IEEE UL 1741 for the worst-case. The simulation results show that the adverse effects of this method are negligible and non-detection zone of the proposed method is small. Also, this method has no significant effects on the power quality and system normal operation mode. In addition, the results of tests for multiple DGs are suitable and there is not any significant interference between DGs in the normal operation mode.