This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2017.2656020, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery
1

Unstable Operation of Photovoltaic Inverter from Field Experiences

Chun Li, Senior Member, IEEE

inverters typically restart upon the instability as shown in

Abstract--This letter presents records of unstable operations in
grid-connected photovoltaic generation plants. The instabilities
involve a wide range of frequencies from tens to thousands Hertz.
Possible causes of the instabilities are discussed based on
literature survey. The letter suggests new industry standards or
grid codes for photovoltaic generation integration should
consider such practical challenges.
Index TermsPhotovoltaic Inverter, Harmonics, Instability,
Power Quality, Distributed Energy Resources
I. INTRODUCTION
A S photovoltaic (PV) generations are penetrating into
power grid rapidly, power quality issues, especially
harmonics from PV inverters, attract wide interests.
Fig.2, probably by internal protective control. The distortions
drop to normal level once inverters restart.
Harmonic instabilities are also recorded at other
frequencies. Fig.3 shows current and voltage waveforms of a
28kV/600V solar farm partially shutting down its inverters
under oscillations at 780Hz. The farm has 50 inverters in
parallel. In both events there was no any utility switching,
outage or fault event could be correlated to the harmonic
outburst. The causes of the instabilities are very likely inside
the solar plants but in-yard operating records are not available.
Some simulation and laboratory studies show that interactions
among multi-paralleled PV inverters and the grid impedance
characteristics could cause similar instabilities [1-4].

Model development, computer simulation and laboratory tests

on inverter harmonic instability are available in literatures
[1-7]. However, unstable operations from real grid-connected
PV plants are rarely reported. Field experiences from real PV
operations are duly needed for research validations, design
improvement and code establishment. This letter presents
original records of unstable PV operations covering a wide
range of frequencies from tens to thousands of Hertz. Possible
causes for the instabilities are discussed based on literature
reviews due to unavailability of PV facility models (even Fig.1 Current and voltage waveforms under normal and unstable operations
black-box model) and internal operating record. The letter
suggests future PV connection standards or grid codes should
consider these practical challenges.
II. RECORDS OF UNSTABLE PV OPERATIONS
This section presents three types of unstable operation
records from grid-connected PV plants.
A. Unstable PV Operation at Low-Order Harmonics
The first instability example is from a PV plant under
500kW. The plant is connected to utilitys 44kV feeder via a
600V/44kV step-up transformer. Fault level at 44kV Point of
Connection (PoC) is close to 200 MVA. Approximately 30 Fig.2 Current and voltage waveforms under inverters restart
inverters are paralleled at the 600V bus where no local load is
supplied. The inverter specifications guarantee total current
harmonic distortion below 2% at rated power. The left half of
Fig.1 shows a snapshot of PV current and voltage waveforms
at 90% of rated power output, where harmonic is not a
concern. However, the PV output currents could become
highly distorted as shown in the right half of Fig.1. FFT
analysis from 12-cycles window shows that the distortion
concentrated at 420Hz. The magnitude of the 7th harmonic
current approaches 20% of the PV rated current. The PV

C. Li is with Hydro One Networks Inc., Toronto, Canada

Fig.3 Current and voltage waveforms under partial inverter shutdown

0885-8977 (c) 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.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2017.2656020, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery
B. Unstable Operation at High Frequency
Inverter instabilities at high frequencies (HF) are available
in literatures [1,3], however field records are rarely reported.
Fig.4 and Fig.5 show currents and voltages of a PV plant
under 500kW when inverters restart upon HF oscillations.
Fault level at PV 600V bus is 7MVA. FFT analysis from two-
cycle data in Fig.5 shows the oscillations focus at 2370Hz.
The meter samples 128 points per cycle. The HF voltage
ripples vanish once the inverters restart (current recovery
similar as Fig.2 is omitted in order to illustrate the HF ripples).
Inverter control system interactions with external grid
characteristics might contribute to the unstable operation [1,6].
Fig.4 PV current waveforms with high-frequency oscillations
Fig.5 PV voltage waveforms with high-frequency oscillations
C. Unstable Operation at Interharmonics
The last example involves sub-synchronous oscillations in
grid-connected PV operations. Three solar farms, 10MVA
each, are connected to utility substation via a 44kV feeder of
30km, all operating at constant power factor. Fault level at the
44kV PoC is approximately 120MVA. Weakly damped
oscillations near 20Hz are recorded when a 30Mvar/44kV
capacitor is energized at the substation bus. Fig.6 shows
current waveforms and voltage RMS trends (updated every
half cycle) measured at one solar farms 44kV terminal in
response to a capacitor switching. The voltage fluctuations are
result of simultaneous oscillations from the three solar farms.
FFT analysis with 6-cycle data in Fig.6 indicates that the
output current contain a 80Hz component with magnitude
close to 75% of the fundamental current. The magnitude
modulation at 20Hz in Fig.6 could be explained by the
inverter interharmonic injection (80-60=20Hz). The sub-
synchronous oscillations triggered by capacitor switching
transients could be result of Phase-Locked Loop dynamics in
PV inverters [1,2,5,7].
0885-8977 (c) 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.
2
Fig.6 PV current and voltage upon utility capacitor switching
Due to lack of established standards to regulate PV inverter
performance, utilities may face new voltage quality
management challenges. It is further troublesome that the PV
oscillations occur in wide spectra, which makes predicting and
mitigating such harmonics with conventional filters
difficult. Active damping technique is proposed in some
researches [4,6], however operating verification has not been
reported. Future industry standards or grid codes may consider
requiring PV inverters to demonstrate sufficient damping
across reasonable frequency band and operation levels.
III. CONCLUSIONS
This letter presents field records of unstable operations
from grid-connected PV plants. Causes of the instabilities may
involve interactions among PV inverter control systems and
grid impedance characteristics. The frequencies of the
instabilities vary in large scale therefore conventional filters
may not mitigate the problems effectively and solutions from
inverter control systems should be examined. Industry
standards or grid codes to regulate PV inverter frequency
characteristics should be considered to manage the new type
of power quality disturbances.
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