IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 32, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2017 453

Fault Models of Inverter-Interfaced Distributed

Generators Within a Low-Voltage Microgrid
Wen-Ming Guo, Long-Hua Mu, and Xin Zhang

AbstractThe traditional overcurrent protection is not suitable S Complex power output of PQ-IIDG.
for the microgrid. One of the main reasons is that the fault response Z Equivalent impedance measured by V/f-IIDG.
of the inverter-interfaced distributed generator (IIDG) is very Fundamental angular frequency.
different from that of the rotational generator. This paper develops
fault models of IIDGs within a low-voltage microgrid, including ac- Phase angle of voltage quantity.
tive/reactive power (PQ)-controlled IIDGs and voltage-controlled Phase angle of current quantity.
IIDGs. Considering that the control strategy of the PQ-controlled g1 , g2 , g3 , g4 Transfer factors.
IIDG varies, this paper introduces adjustable parameters into the IPQlim Limitation of PQ-IIDGs output peak current.
model to reflect its fault characteristics as comprehensive as possi- IVFlim Limitation of V/f -IIDGs output current.
ble. Voltage-controlled IIDG is of great significance on maintaining
a stable microgrid. The model of voltage-controlled IIDG proposed kP The set ratio of positive sequence active power
in this paper keeps its voltage-source nature while accomplishing to total active power for PQ-IIDG.
current limiting. The performance of the proposed IIDG fault mod- kQ The set ratio of positive sequence reactive power
els has been tested by Matlab simulations. The achievements of this to total reactive power for PQ-IIDG.
paper are expected to have a positive impact on the development Iset The set peak value of PQ-IIDGs output positive
of microgrid fault analysis and protection.
sequence currents.
Index TermsCurrent limitation, fault model, inverter- set The set value of PQ-IIDGs positive sequence
interfaced distributed generator, microgrid. power factor.

NOMENCLATURE LIST OF SUPERSCRIPTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS + Variable related to positive sequence component.
IIDG Inverter-interfaced distributed generator. Variable related to negative sequence component.
PQ-IIDG PQ controlled IIDG. * Reference of variable.
V/f-IIDG Voltage controlled IIDG.
FRT Fault ride through. LIST OF SUBSCRIPTS
PC Point of connection. ini Initial value of variable.
DER Distributed energy resource. mod Modified value of variable.
P Variable related to active power component.
LIST OF SYMBOLS Q Variable related to reactive power component.
u Three-phase PC voltages vector of IIDG. A, B, C Variable related to phase A, B, C.
i Three-phase output currents vector of IIDG. max Maximum value of variable.
U PC voltage of IIDG. lim Upper limit of variable.
I Output current of IIDG. nom Nominal value of variable.
L AC-side filtering inductor of IIDG. Orthogonal vector.
C AC-side filtering capacitor of IIDG.
P Active power output of PQ-IIDG. I. INTRODUCTION
Q Reactive power output of PQ-IIDG.
ICROGRID, which provides a new and effective way of

Manuscript received July 31, 2015; revised January 3, 2016; accepted Febru-
M making full use of distributed energy, still faces numer-
ous technical challenges [1][3]. Microgrid protection [4], [5]
ary 28, 2016. Date of publication March 14, 2016; date of current version
January 20, 2017. This work was supported in part by the National Natural is one of them. A reliable protection system is indispensable
Science Foundation of China (51407128). Paper no. TPWRD-01016-2015. to ensure the safe operation of microgrid. Unfortunately, the
W.-M. Guo and X. Zhang are with the College of Electronics and Information traditional overcurrent protection is not suitable for microgrid,
Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China (e-mail: gwmsch@
163.com; zxln1979@163.com). especially in islanded mode, for its fault characteristics are very
L.-H. Mu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tongji University, different from those of traditional distribution grid. To under-
Shanghai 201804, China (e-mail: lhmu@tongji.edu.cn). stand the fault features of microgrid, it is necessary to explore
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. the fault models of IIDGs, which take the dominant position of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2016.2541344 micro-sources within a microgrid.
0885-8977 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
454
In essence, IIDGs can be classified into PQ controlled IIDGs
(PQ-IIDG) and voltage controlled ones (V/f-IIDG). PQ-IIDG
injects a given power into microgrid and acts as a controlled
current source. V/f-IIDG is responsible for maintaining the volt-
age and frequency of microgrid, so it behaves like a controlled
voltage source. The key point of developing IIDGs fault mod-
els is to understand how they respond to abnormal conditions
when fault occurs in microgrid, in other words, how their volt-
age or current references change. In the drafted standard IEEE
P1547.8 [6], the fault ride through (FRT) is a mandatory func-
tionality for DGs, and some grid codes [7], [8] require that DGs
should provide reactive current preferentially. In contrast, Guo
et al [9] introduce that supplying active power achieves more
effective voltage support in low voltage grid. In [10], Cornelis
et al propose that IIDGs inject a pre-defined positive sequence
current into grid. References [11][15] present various fault
control strategies for PQ-IIDGs. And the common feature of
these strategies is that IIDGs could feed positive and negative
sequence current into grid simultaneously. Zamani et al [16]
accomplish the current limiting of V/f-IIDG by compressing
its current references without distortion; however, its hard to
derive the precise expression of IIDGs fault currents. In [17], a
virtual impedance based method is applied to modify the voltage
references of V/f-IIDG, thus to limit the overcurrent caused by
load step; however, the cases of unbalanced faults are not taken
into consideration.
The above mentioned post-fault references of IIDGs are usu-
ally designed based on the major concerns of researchers, such
as the simplicity of current limiting method, or achieving spec-
ified power output. In our opinion, IIDGs reference signals
should meet the following two basic requirements. First, main-
taining the original roles of each IIDG as far as possible under
the premise of ensuring devices safety. Second, convenient to
calculate the fault responses of IIDGs. Based on this standpoint,
this paper derives the fault models of PQ-IIDG and V/f-IIDG by
analyzing the influence of fault condition and current-limiting
on IIDGs operation. With regard to PQ-IIDG, firstly a study on
the relationship among the output powers, output currents and
the voltages at point of connection (PC) from the perspective
of sequence components is carried out. Then, four transfer fac-
tors are introduced to generate the current references combined
with the power references and PC voltages. As to V/f-IIDG,
an equivalent impedance based method is employed to generate
the specific voltage references when different types of faults
occur in microgrid, thus the fault currents can be limited in a
negative-feedback fashion.
The outline of the paper is as follows. Section III presents the
fault model of PQ-IIDG. Section VI presents the fault model of
V/f-IIDG. Section V provides several selected simulation results
to evaluate the performance of proposed fault models. Finally,
conclusions are presented in Section VI.
II. FAULT MODEL OF PQ-IIDG
A. Fault Control of PQ-IIDG
Fig. 1 shows the typical configuration and control block di-
agram of a three-phase PQ-IIDG, where P and Q represent
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 32, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2017
Fig. 1. Configuration and control block diagram of PQ-IIDG.
the active and reactive power references; u, i and i represent
PQ-IIDGs PC voltages, output currents and current references.
It is worth noting that the bold symbols represent three-phase
vectors throughout this paper.
Distributed energy resources (DER) usually utilize three-
phase three-leg inverter to convert energy, so a transformer is
needed to work as an interface with the four-wire microgrid.
We assume that PQ-IIDG keep the original function under
fault conditions. In other words, PQ-IIDG still attempts to track
the active and reactive power references by regulating its output
currents. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the current references of PQ-
IIDG are a function of the power references and PC voltages.
After the PC voltages feed-forward, the output currents of PQ-
IIDG are determined by the current references alone. If the
current controller is designed properly, it can be assumed that
i = i
It can be seen that the fault model of PQ-IIDG is a group of
controlled current sources. To figure out the general expressions
of PQ-IIDGs current references, it is necessary to understand
the relationship among its output powers, output currents and
PC voltages.
B. Power Analysis
Three-phase converter equipment is usually connected in un-
grounded star [18], and therefore it would not be affected by
zero sequence voltages when ground fault occurs in microgrid.
The PC voltages can be decomposed into positive sequence and
negative sequence components as
u = u+ + u
where
+
U cos (t + + )
 
u+ = 2 U + cos t + + 120 (1)
 
U + cos t + + + 120
U cos (t + )
 
u = 2 U cos t + + 120 (2)
 
U cos t + 120
Since three-phase PQ-IIDG cannot output zero sequence cur-
rents, the currents of PQ-IIDG can be decomposed into sequence
GUO et al.: FAULT MODELS OF INVERTER-INTERFACED DISTRIBUTED GENERATORS WITHIN A LOW-VOLTAGE MICROGRID 455

Rotating u by 90 degree in counterclockwise direction, we get

u
as

0 1 1
1 1
u = 0 1 u (10)
3 1 1 0
According to (1)(4), (9) and (10), it can be derived that
+ +

u i = 3U + I + cos (+ + )


u i = 3U I cos ( )
(11)

i = 3U I sin ( )
u+ + + + + +



u i = 3U I sin ( )
Fig. 2. Illustration of current and voltage vectors in plane.
Therefore, PQ-IIDGs output powers, output currents and PC
components as voltages have the following relationship.

i = i+ + i P = u+ i+ + u i

(12)
where Q = u+ i + u i
+

+
I cos (t + + )
 

C. PQ-IIDGs Fault Model
i+ = 2 I + cos t + + 120 (3)
 
In order to facilitate the derivation of general expressions of
I + cos t + + + 120 PQ-IIDGs current references, the sequence components of PQ-
IIDGs output currents can be further decomposed into active
I cos (t + )
 
power component and reactive power component as [13]
i = 2 I cos t + + 120 (4) 
 
i+ = i+P + iQ
+
I cos t + 120 (13)
i = i
P + iQ
Without consideration of the power consumed on the filter in-
ductor, the complex power of PQ-IIDG is given by The relations among the components of currents and voltages
are shown in (14), where // means parallel.
S = U A IA + U B IB + U C IC (5)
P // u , iP // u , iQ // u , iQ // u
i+ + + +
(14)
where the and above variables means conjugation and +
phasor respectively. Since i+
P , iP and iQ , iQ are related to PQ-IIDGs active power
By using the transformation relation shown in (6), where F and reactive power respectively, the components of PQ-IIDGs
represents U or I, PQ-IIDGs complex power can be expressed output currents can be expressed as
+
by the sequence components of its output currents and PC volt- iP = P g1 u+


ages, as shown in (7).
i = P g2 u
P

+
 F a
(15)
F a 1 a a2
i+
Q = Q g3 u
+

=

F b , with a = ej 120 (6)

1 a a iQ = Q g4 u
Fa 2

F c
where g1 , g2 , g3 and g4 can be called transfer factors.
+ According to (12) (15), it can be derived that
S= 3U A+ IA + 3U A IA (7)  

P = P g1 u+  + g2 u 
2 2
According to (1)(4), and (7), it can be derived that
   (16)
P = 3U + I + cos (+ + ) + 3U I cos ( )
Q = Q g3 u+ 2 + g4 u 2
Q = 3U + I + sin (+ + ) + 3U I sin ( )
where   means the norm of a vector.
(8)
The output powers of PQ-IIDG will equal their references if
In stationary reference frame, u+ and u are located in the
transfer factors follow the constraints shown in (17).
plane, as illustrated in Fig. 2. Rotating u+ by 90 degree in
clockwise direction, we get u+ as g1 u+ 2 + g2 u 2 = 1
(17)
0 1 1 g u+ 2 + g u 2 = 1
3 4
1
u+ = 1 0 1 u+ (9)
Naturally, we can set PQ-IIDGs current references as (18) ac-
3
1 1 0 cording to (15), and then the fault model of PQ-IIDG can be
456
Fig. 3. Sequence component fault model of PQ-IIDG: (left) positive sequence
fault model and (right)negative sequence fault model.
easily derived as illustrated in Fig. 3, where the expressions of
positive and negative sequence controlled current sources are
shown in (19) and (20) respectively.
i = P g1 u+ + P g2 u + Q g3 u+
+ Q g4 u (18)
I + = (P g1 jQ g3 ) U
+ (19)
I = (P g2 jQ g4 ) U
(20)
D. Parameters Determination
The basic form of PQ-IIDGs fault model has already been
acquired; the next question is how to determine the parameters of
this model, including the power references and transfer factors.
With regard to this issue, we think that there exist three aspects
should be considered.
The first aspect is FRT requirement, which stipulates that
PQ-IIDG change their power references to provide better volt-
age support function. For simplicity, here we assume that the
new active and reactive power references are already known and
denoted as Pini
and Qini respectively. The subscript ini indi-
cates those variables are initial quantities and would be further
modified in the follow-up steps.
The second aspect is the detailed fault control strategies.
The basic control task of PQ-IIDG is to track the power ref-
erences, thus the values of transfer factors should comply with
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 32, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2017
The third aspect is fault current limiting. The output current
limitation of PQ-IIDG is usually set as twice of the normal
current [19]. When severe fault occurs in microgrid, the PC
voltages will drop substantially and PQ-IIDGs output currents
might exceed the phase current limitation. So it is necessary to
restrict the magnitude of PQ-IIDGs current references vector,
which can be denoted as  i . Notice that  i  is usually
a time-dependent variable and its maximum value is shown in
(21), which can be easily derived from (18).

 i m ax =  u+  (P g1 )2 + (Q g3 )2

+  u  (P g2 )2 + (Q g4 )2 (21)
If we make sure that  i m ax is always less than its limitation
value, as shown in (22), where IPQlim represents the limitation
of PQ-IIDGs output peak current, then all the phase currents
will be kept within their safety range.

3
 i m ax  i lim = IPQlim (22)
2
Next we will choose two kinds of fault control scenarios
to illustrate how to modify the initial power references and
initial transfer factors, thus to limit the magnitude of  i 
and reserve the expected power or current characteristics. Here
we denote the modified variables as Pm o d , Qm o d and g1,m o d ,
g2,m o d , g3,m o d , g4,m o d respectively.
Scenario 1: Power characteristics regulation. Without loss of
generality, here it is assumed that the reactive power is of higher
priority. The ratio of positive sequence active power to total
active power is controlled to be kP , and the ratio of positive
sequence reactive power to total reactive power is controlled
to be kQ . Then, strategy equations can be derived as shown
in (23).
the constraints presented in (17). However, there exist four un-
known transfer factors in total, so two extra equations which
can be called strategy equations are still needed besides the two
basic ones provided in (17). The strategy equations are gen-
erally determined by the additional control requirements. At
present, these requirements are mainly put forward from the
view of power features regulation. In [11], [12], different posi-
tive/negative sequence power injection ratio is selected to deal
with various types of faults. References [13][14][15] present to
suppress the oscillation components of instantaneous active or
reactive power to restrict their negative effects. Besides the per-
spective of power features, we think that current characteristics
can also be taken into consideration, such as fixing the positive
or negative sequence current amplitude to a given value. Ma-
nipulating PQ-IIDGs fault currents with some distinct features
is promised to simplify the protection settings. Anyway, once
the strategy equations are determined, the four transfer factors
can be calculated and we denote them as g1,ini , g2,ini , g3,ini and
g4,ini in this paper, because they are also initial quantities and
would be modified later. It is worth noting that the values of
g1ini and g3ini are usually positive, for PQ-IIDG injects active
and reactive power to microgrid rather than absorbing powers
within positive sequence in most cases.
 2
g1 u+  = kP
2
(23)
g3 u+  = kQ
The initial power references are defined by FRT requirement,
and the initial transfer factors can be solved out based on (17) and
(23). In this scenario, since the transfer factors are independent
of power references, it seems more convenient to achieve current
limiting by adjusting power references alone, and the modified
transfer factors will be set to equal their initial values. The
detailed modification procedures are presented as follows.
Step 1 Set g1,m o d = g1,ini , g2,m o d = g2,ini , g3,m o d =
g3,ini , g4,m o d = g4,ini .
Step 2 Determine the upper limit of PQ-IIDGs pure reactive
power output, which is denoted as Qlim , by calculat-
ing (24).
i lim
Qlim = (24)
|g3,m o d | u+  + |g4,m o d | u 
Step 3 If Qlim < Qini , set Qm o d = Qlim . In this case,
there has no surplus capacity for PQ-IIDG to export
active power, so we set Pm o d = 0.
Step 4 If Qlim Qini , set Qm o d = Qini . In this case, the
PQ-IIDG still has the capability to output some active
GUO et al.: FAULT MODELS OF INVERTER-INTERFACED DISTRIBUTED GENERATORS WITHIN A LOW-VOLTAGE MICROGRID 457

power, whose upper limit is denoted as Plim . The

value of Plim can be acquired by solving out (25).
Then, set Pm o d as shown in (26), where min( )
means the minimum element among the variables in
brackets.

i lim = u+  (Plim
g 2
1,m o d ) + (Qm o d g3,m o d )
2


+u  (Plim
g 2
2,m o d ) + (Qm o d g4,m o d )
2
(25)
Pm o d = min (Plim

, Pini ) (26)
Scenario 2: Current characteristics regulation. Here we as-
sume the active power is with higher priority. The peak value
of PQ-IIDGs positive sequence current is controlled to be Iset , Fig. 4. Configuration and control block diagram of V/f-IIDG.
and the power factor of positive sequence power is controlled to
be set . Then, the strategy equations can be written as
 
into (21), thus the upper limits of residual unknown quantities
(P g1 )2 + (Q g3 )2 u+  = 3 Iset
2 can be determined.
 (27)

P g1 = set (P g1 ) + (Q g3 )
2 2 According to the analysis above, as long as the phase-current
limitation value, the detailed FRT requirement, and the addi-
Initial power references are known quantities defined by FRT tional fault control requirements are decided, the detailed fault
requirement, and then the initial transfer factors can be cal- model of PQ-IIDG can be derived step by step, which has simple
culated by substituting Pini
and Qini into (17) and (27). The and explicit expression. A prominent merit of this model is that
transfer factors are related to power references, so adjusting the the current limiting and the desired power or current character-
transfer factor alone is a better choice and the modified power istics can be achieved at the same time. In addition, comparing
references will be set to equal their initial values. The detailed with the existing counterpart that has a fixed form [10], the
modification procedures are presented as follows. proposed model of PQ-IIDG is capable to reflect more PQ-
Step 1 Set Pm o d = Pini
, Qm o d = Qini , g1,m o d = IIDGs fault responses which are potential to appear in different
g1,ini , g3,m o d = g3,ini to ensure that the positive scenarios.
sequence currents meet the given current control
requirement. III. FAULT MODEL OF V/F-IIDG
Step 2 Determine the upper limit of |g2 |, which is denoted
A. Fault Control of V/f-IIDG
as |g2 |lim , by calculating (28).
 The loads are likely to be unbalanced in low-voltage micro-
i lim 32 Iset grid. The V/f-IIDG discussed in this paper utilizes three-phase
|g2 |lim = (28) four-leg inverter [20] to regulate three-phase voltages separately.
Pm o d u 
When fault occurs in microgrid, V/f-IIDG will attempt to main-
Step 3 If |g2 |lim < |g2,ini |, then set g2,m o d as shown in (29), tain the PC voltages within their normal range. However, if the
where sgn( ) means the sign (positive or nega- fault is far too severe, V/f-IIDG should modify its voltage ref-
tive) of the variable in brackets. In this case, we set erences actively to avoid overcurrent. Subsequently, the critical
g4,m o d = 0, thus to ensure current limiting. issue of V/f-IIDGs fault control is to calculate the maximum
allowable voltage references of V/f-IIDG with consideration of
g2,m o d = |g2 |lim sgn (g2,ini ) (29) current limiting.
Step 4 If |g2 |lim |g2,ini |, set g2,m o d = g2,ini . The upper Fig. 4 shows the configuration and control block diagram of
limit of |g4 |, which is denoted as |g4 |lim , can be ac- V/f-IIDG, where u and i represent PC voltages and output cur-
quired by solving out (30). Then, set g4,m o d as shown rents, u and i represent the corresponding references of u and
in (31). i. The control system first calculates the equivalent impedances
 of each phase, which are denoted as Zx (x = A, B, C), based on
i lim = u+  (Pm o d g1,m o d )2 + (Qm o d g3,m o d )2 V/f-IIDGs output currents and PC voltages. Then, V/f-IIDGs
 voltage references can be determined by its phase current limita-
+ u  (Pm o d g2,m o d )2 + (Qm o d |g4 |lim )2 (30) tion and the measured equivalent impedances. If both the current
controller and voltage controller are designed properly, and ap-
g4,m o d = min (|g4,ini | , |g4 |lim ) sgn (g4,ini ) (31) propriate feed-forwards are adopted, then it can be assumed
that
It is worth noting that (24), (25), (28) and (30) are derived
by substituting the known power references and transfer factors u = u
458 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 32, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2017

B. V/f-IIDGs Fault Model

The equivalent impedances of each phase can be calculated
as
Zx = Ux /Ix , with x = A, B, C (32)
where Ux and Ix (x = A, B, C) represent the PC voltage and
output current of each phase respectively. When fault occurs
in microgrid, V/f-IIDGs voltage references will not change
Fig. 5. Fault model of V/f-IIDG.
immediately because of the delay of measurement. With the
equivalent impedance of faulty phase dropped substantially, V/f-
IIDGs output currents of faulty phases will increase in a short
time. If the current of a certain phase reaches the limitation
value, the control system will judge that there exists severe fault
in that phase. Then, the voltage references of V/f-IIDG will be
modified based on the fault type and the equivalent impedances.
The voltage references of healthy phases remain unchanged,
thus to minimize the disturbed area.
When single-phase fault (such as phase A) occurs in micro-
grid, the magnitude of voltage reference of phase A will be
modified as

UA,m o d = min (Unom , ZA IVFlim ) (33) Fig. 6. Low-voltage microgrid.

where Unom represents the nominal phase-voltage, and IVFlim

represents the limitation of V/f-IIDGs output current.
When two-phase fault (such as short circuit between phase
A and B) occurs, the equivalent impedance of phase A will be
influenced significantly by the output current of phase B and
vice versa. Therefore, the magnitude of voltage references of
these two phases must be modified in a unified manner and they
are assumed to have the same magnitude as shown in (34).
UA,m o d = UB,m o d = min (Unom , ZA IVFlim , ZB IVFlim ) (34)
When three-phase fault occurs, the magnitudes of three-phase
voltage references are set to be the same in a similar way.
UA , m o d = UB , m o d = UC , m o d
= min (Un o m , ZA IV F lim , ZB IV F lim , ZC IV F lim ) (35)
Using the above-mentioned modification method, it can be
ensured that the steady-state phase-currents of V/f-IIDG would
not exceed their limitation value. However, it is worth noting
that the adjustment process of voltage references will last for
some time (about 1 2 periods, related to the fault severity and
the speed of PLL) to reach steady state. During the transient
period, the current references of V/f-IIDG are very likely to
exceed the limitation, so it is necessary to place a saturation
module before the current control loop, as shown in Fig. 4.
Based on (33) (35), the fault model of V/f -IIDG can be
summarized as a group of controlled voltage sources which
are shown in Fig. 5, and the magnitudes of controlled voltage
sources are presented in (36).
The phase angles of the controlled voltage sources remain the
same as those before the fault, because the unbalanced extent of
PC voltages will be minimized with this setting.
Comparing with the existing methods [16], [17], the fault
control strategy of V/f-IIDG proposed in this paper can handle
various types of faults properly, since the the PC Voltages of
healthy phases are exempted from the influence of fault and the
voltage drops of faulty phases can be minimized. In addition, the
fault model of V/f-IIDG preserves the nature of voltage source,
which is useful to maintain the stability of microgrid under fault
conditions [17].
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
By referencing the inverter control techniques presented in
documents [2], [21], and [22], we developed the proposed fault
models with Matlab/Simulink. The fault models of PQ-IIDG
and V/f-IIDG were tested in a 0.4 kV microgrid as shown in
Fig. 6.
When CB is open, the microgrid shown in Fig. 6 will operate
in islanded mode. DG1 is a 10 kVA PQ-IIDG, whose peak
current limitation is 40 A. DG2 is a 20 kVA V/f-IIDG, whose
peak current limitation is 80 A. The length of Line1 and Line
2 are both 0.2 km with the impedance per unit length being
0.642 + j0.083 /km. The pre-fault active and reactive power
references of DG1 are 7 kW and 2 kvar respectively. No matter
which kinds of faults occur, it is assumed that the initial post-
fault active and reactive power references of DG1 are set as 7 kW
 and 6 kvar according to the FRT requirement. In other words,
Unom if Unom Zx IVFlim
Ux = we assume Pini = 7 kW and Qini = 6 kvar constantly.
IVFlim min (ZA , ZB , ZC ) if Unom > Zx IVFlim Case 1: Single Phase Fault
(36) At 0.08 s, phase A ground fault occurs at the midpoint of Line1
where x = A, B, C. and the fault resistance is 1 . The fault control strategy of DG1
GUO et al.: FAULT MODELS OF INVERTER-INTERFACED DISTRIBUTED GENERATORS WITHIN A LOW-VOLTAGE MICROGRID 459

TABLE I
TRANSFER FACTORS OF CASE 2

g1 /105 g2 /105 g3 /105 g4 /105

Initial 1.91 V2 2.58 V2 1.08 V2 5.10 V2

Modified 1.91 V2 2.15 V2 1.08 V2 0.00 V2

Fig. 7. Simulation results of DG1 in case 1: (top) output currents and (bottom)
supplied power of positive and negative sequence.

Fig. 9. Simulation results of DG1 in case 2: (top) output currents, (middle)

positive sequence component of output currents, and (bottom) supplied power
of positive and negative sequence.

Fig. 8. Simulation results of DG2 in case 1: (top) output currents and (bottom)
PC voltages.
is the same as that of Scenario 1 introduced in Section III
where kP is set as 0.8, and kQ is set as 0.5.
The simulation results of DG1 are shown in Fig. 7. The active
powers supplied from positive sequence and negative sequence
are 5.62 kW and 1.4 kW, and the reactive powers supplied from
positive sequence and negative sequence are both 3 kvar. It can
be seen that the actual values of kP and kQ meet the expectation.
The total supplied active power and reactive power are 7 kW
and 6 kvar, which are in accord with the expected values.
From Fig. 7 top, it can be observed that the maximum phase-
current of PQ-IIDG is not appeared in the faulty phase, i.e., phase
A. The reasons are as follows. The three-phase three-leg inverter
based PQ-IIDG cant regulate the phase-current directly. In fact,
PQ-IIDGs current references are generated based on sequence
components. More importantly, only if PQ-IIDG injects currents
as shown in Fig. 7 top, can the power characteristics required
by case 2 be achieved.
The simulation results of DG2 are shown in Fig. 8. Because
the peak current of phase A is limited to 80 A, the post-fault
voltage of phase A drops to about 64 V. From Fig. 8 top, it
can be observed that V/f-IIDGs currents of healthy phases are
460 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 32, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2017

Fig. 10. Simulation results of DG2 in case 2: (top) output currents and
(bottom) PC voltages.

Fig. 11. Simulation results of DG1 in case 3: (top) output currents and
changed. The reason is that the fault response of PQ-IIDG influ- (bottom) supplied active and reactive power.
ences the equivalent impedances of V/f-IIDGs healthy phases,
thus the currents of phase B and C are different with the corre-
sponding pre-fault currents.
Case 2: Two-Phase Fault
At 0.08 s, short circuit fault between phase A and phase B
occurs at the midpoint of Line1 and the fault resistance is 2 .
The fault control strategy of DG1 is the same as that of Scenario
2 introduced in Section III, where Iset is set as 30 A, and set
is set as 0.9.
The simulation results of DG1 are shown in Fig. 9. The peak
value of positive sequence current is 30 A. The active and reac-
tive powers supplied from positive sequence are 8.24 kW and
4 kvar, and the power factor of positive sequence is 0.9. These
results indicate that the expected current and power characteris-
tic required by this case are achieved. The total supplied active
power and reactive power are 7.23 kW and 4 kvar, which are
different with the expected values. Based on the initial and mod-
ified transfer factors shown in Table I, we can conclude that the
absorbed active power and the exported reactive power through
negative sequence are both restricted because of current lim-
iting, thus the total active power output is increased while the
total reactive power output is decreased.
The simulation results of DG2 are shown in Fig. 10. The
post-fault voltages of phase A and phase B drop to about 89 V. Fig. 12. Simulation results of DG2 in case 3: (top) output currents and
(bottom) PC voltages.
Case 3: Three-Phase Fault
At 0.08 s, three-phase short circuit fault occurs at the midpoint
of Line1. The fault resistance is 2 . The fault control strategy
of DG1 is the same as those of Scenario 1 introduced in The simulation results of DG2 are shown in Fig. 12. The
Section III. Both kP and kQ are set to 1, for the negative sequence post-fault three phase voltages drop to 68 V.
voltage in microgrid is very low in this case. The black dashed lines in Figs. 712 represent the peak cur-
The simulation results of DG1 are shown in Fig. 11. The rent boundaries. Obviously, the current limiting is implemented
total supplied active power and reactive power are 3.94 kW and successfully in each case. From the simulation results, we can
6 kvar. The reactive power has a higher priority, so the active conclude that IIDGs fault features meet the corresponding fault
power is reduced to achieve current limiting in this case. control strategies. PQ-IIDG behaves like a controlled current
GUO et al.: FAULT MODELS OF INVERTER-INTERFACED DISTRIBUTED GENERATORS WITHIN A LOW-VOLTAGE MICROGRID
source and its fault response is closely related to control strat-
egy. V/f-IIDG behaves like a controlled voltage source, and the
voltages of healthy phases remain unchanged while the voltages
of faulty phases are reduced.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper proposes the fault models of the three-phase three-
leg inverter based PQ-IIDG and the three-phase four-leg inverter
based V/f-IIDG. The fault model of PQ-IIDG, which is a group
of controlled current sources, can reflect various fault responses
of PQ-IIDG under different control strategies by adjusting pa-
rameters of the model. The fault model of V/f-IIDG is a group
of controlled voltage sources, which can handle different types
of faults flexibly while achieving current limiting. V/f-IIDGs
model preserves the nature of voltage source, and this property
is very helpful to maintain the stability of microgrid. Simulation
results validate the performance of the fault models proposed in
this paper.
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Wen-Ming Guo received the B.S. degrees in elec-
trical engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai,
China, in 2011, where he is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree.
His current research interests are microgrid pro-
tection and control.
Long-Hua Mu received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D.
degrees in electrical engineering from China Univer-
sity of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China, in
1986, 1988, and 1998, respectively.
He has been a Full Professor in the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Tongji University, Shang-
hai, China, since 2004. His current research interests
include the protective relaying of power systems, mi-
crogrids, and power quality.
Xin Zhang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in
electrical engineering from China University of Min-
ing and Technology, Xuzhou, China, in 2002 and
2005, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai, China,
in 2012.
Currently, he is a Research Associate at Tongji
University. His current research interests are power
system protection and control.