Dynamic model of commercially available inverters with validation against hardware testing

The increasing penetration of photovoltaics (PV) in the bulk power system has led to the growing need for better understanding the behavior of PV inverters during grid disturbances. A configurable dynamic model is presented in this paper emulating the behavior of a Low Voltage (LV) connected off-the-shelf PV inverter during faults and voltage dips. The model has been developed and validated against the results acquired throughout the empirical characterization of the real inverter. The physical testing of the Device Under Test (DUT) was performed at the Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC), where the required network conditions were applied at the output of the inverter using a Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). Further simulations, conducted with the aid of the developed model, aim to reflect a distribution network dominated by inverter connected generation under a number of imposed fault scenarios.