972 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO.

2, APRIL 2009

Influence of Voltage Positive Feedback Anti-Islanding Scheme on Inverter-Based

Distributed Generator Stability
Xiaoyu Wang, Member, IEEE, and Walmir Freitas, Member, IEEE

Abstract—This letter investigates the influence of the voltage

positive feedback anti-islanding scheme on the stability of in-
verter-based distributed generators (DGs). Modal analysis is used
to determine the relationship between the positive feedback gain
of the anti-islanding control and the stability limit. It was found
that strong positive feedback gain will destabilize the distribution
generator when the power transferred from the distribution
system to the DG local load is small.
Index Terms—Distributed generation, inverter-based generator,
positive feedback anti-islanding, voltage stability. Fig. 1. Single-line diagram of the test distribution system.

I. INTRODUCTION

R ECENTLY, the positive feedback concept was intro-

duced to facility the islanding detection of inverter-based
distributed generators (DGs) [1]. Compared with the passive
schemes and the other active schemes, the positive feedback
anti-islanding scheme has a better performance on islanding
protection of grid-connected DGs [2]. However, the positive
feedback control resident in the DGs could cause potential
stability problems to the distributed generator since such
techniques always introduce a destabilizing force into the DG
control system. our knowledge, little effort has been done
to investigate such potential impact of the positive feedback
anti-islanding scheme.
Therefore, this letter studies the influence of the voltage pos-
itive feedback anti-islanding control on the stability of inverter-
based DGs by using the modal analysis approach. The relation-
ship between the positive feedback gain and the distribution
system power transfer limit is disclosed.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
Consider an inverter-based DG connected to a distribution
system as shown in Fig. 1. In this, figure, the resistance and the
inductance of the distribution line are and , respectively.
The power transferred from the distribution system to the DG
local load is . The DG delivers to the
local load, which is represented by a constant impedance
. Thus, the power consumed by the load is the
sum of and . The three-phase inverter
is constant power-controlled; consequently, the inverter control
inputs are and . In addition, the DG is operated with
Manuscript received October 14, 2007; revised March 18, 2008. Current ver-
sion published March 25, 2009. This work was supported by the Natural Re-
sources Canada through the Technology and Innovation Program as part of the
Climate Action Plan for Canada. Paper no. PESL-00114-2007.
X. Wang is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua Univer-
sity, Beijing, China 100084 (e-mail: xiaoyuw@tsinghua.edu.cn).
W. Freitas is with the Department of Electrical Energy Systems, State Uni-
versity of Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, Brazil (e-mail: walmir@ieee.org).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2013373
0885-8977/$25.00 © 2009 IEEE
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the voltage positive feedback anti-islanding scheme.
unity power factor, as is typical in these cases. The system bus
voltage is , which is assumed as constant. The DG terminal
bus varies with the powers supplied by the system and
the DG as well as with the power consumed by the load. CB is
the circuit breaker, which can be used to simulate an islanding
situation (if desirable).
III. VOLTAGE ANTI-ISLANDING SCHEME
The voltage positive feedback anti-islanding scheme detects
the variation of the DG terminal voltage magnitude to gen-
erate a positive feedback signal [3]. The block diagram of the
scheme is shown in Fig. 2. From this figure, one can see that the
voltage error signal is firstly obtained through a washout
filter with a time constant . After that, the voltage error signal
is amplified by the positive feedback gains to ob-
tain the power error signal . Then, the power error signal
is superimposed on the active power reference of the inverter
controller to perturb the output power of the DG. It can be seen
from Fig. 1 that the DG terminal voltage will be affected by the
DG output power. As a result, a voltage positive feedback loop
is formed [3]. When the DG is connected to a strong grid, the
DG terminal voltage will be determined by the grid and the ef-
fect of the anti-islanding control on the voltage is small. On the
other hand, when the utility is absent the positive feedback con-
trol will act to destabilize the islanded DG system by varying
and, consequently, the islanding detection is accelerated. This is
the basis of the voltage positive feedback anti-islanding scheme.
IV. DG STABILITY ANALYSIS
Fig. 3 shows the P-V curves of the DG terminal bus of Fig. 1 for
different levels. These curves were obtained by solving the
power flow equations of the system. Thus, at first, the dynamic
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 2, APRIL 2009 973

Fig. 3. P-V curves of the DG terminal for different P .

Fig. 4. Simulation results of the DG terminal voltage.

characteristics of the inverter are not considered. For simplicity,

the local load was represented only by a resistance . Then, the
resistance was varied to increase the load power . Point is
the nose point when there is no DG installed. Point and point
arerelatedto thenose pointswhentheDGoutputpower is0.1
and 0.3 p.u., respectively. It can be observed that voltage stability
margin is increased when the DG penetration level increases.
However, the situation is different when the anti-islanding con-
trol is considered. According to the small-signal analysis of the
system in Fig. 1 including the anti-islanding protection, it was
found that the stable region is the segment between point and
point for the curve. Correspondingly, the seg-
ment between point and point is the stable region for the Fig. 5. Root loci of the DG system.
curve. In other words, the DG will lose its stability
when the load power is smaller than the power level at point or
in this case, the influence of the system power on the voltage
point . In this analysis, the anti-islanding gains are and
behavior is strengthened. Fig. 5 shows the root loci of the DG
, which are typical values. These results were obtained
system when is varied. From this figure, one can see that
by calculating the system eigenvalues for each operating point of
the DG becomes unstable when the system power is decreased.
the P-V curve.
Thus, there is a minimum transfer power requirement from the
This phenomenon is also demonstrated by electromagnetic
distribution system to the DG local load to support the stable
transient simulations of the interconnected DG system shown in
operation of the DG system in the presence of the voltage posi-
Fig. 1. Fig. 4 displays the responses of the DG terminal voltage
tive feedback anti-islanding scheme.
magnitude for two cases where In the first case,
the load power is 0.35 p.u., which is in the stable region of the P-V
curve. The voltage anti-islanding control is enabled at 0.5 s in the V. CONCLUSIONS
inverter controller and it can be seen that the voltage response is This letter presented a preliminary investigation about the im-
stable even after the anti-islanding protection activation. In the pact of the voltage positive feedback anti-islanding scheme on
second case, the load power is 0.1 p.u., which is in the unstable the voltage stability of inverter-based DGs. Small-signal anal-
region of the P-V curve. For this case the DG terminal voltage ysis and simulation results show that the strong positive feed-
becomes unstable after the anti-islanding control is enabled. The back control will cause instability when most of the local load
parameter settings of the simulation are the same with those in is supplied by the DG. This finding is important to DG owners
the small-signal analysis and the power flow analysis. and supply utilities.
The explanation of the observations is based on the fact that
the load power is composed by the sum of and .
REFERENCES
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