An application of phasor measurement unit to monitor a grid connected solar energy generation system

Abstract

While renewable energies are gaining more interest among today’s power sources, solar panels are increasing their contribution to the power grid day by day due to the greatest potential they have. Identical to all other types of power generation plants, the integration of solar energy sources into the grid increases its complexity and poses challenges to maintain the system’s stability. In this paper, an adaptation of a phasor measurement unit (PMU) based solution is proposed for solar plants integration in regular power grids. PMUs can measure the stamped phasors of the utility, which are critical parameters for the operation of power devices feeding power into the grid. This paper discusses the use of PMUs for providing the phase angle to system synchronization in the case of high penetration of solar energy into the grid, where the instantaneous monitoring of the voltage, current and power flow is an important requirement.