Impact of Inverter-Based Resources on the Protection of the Electrical Grid
For power system engineers and grid operators, it consolidates knowledge on protection issues with renewable integration, but is a literature review without new results.
This paper reviews challenges posed by inverter-based resources (solar, wind) to grid protection, including increased blackouts and cascading failures, and surveys grid codes, modeling, and fault response methods.
In recent years, the contribution of renewable energy resources to the electrical grid has increased drastically; the most common of these are photovoltaic solar panels and wind turbines. These resources rely on inverters to interface with the grid, which do not inherently exhibit the same fault characteristics as synchronous generators. Consistently, they can strain grid reliability and security, cause increased number of blackouts, and, in some cases, allow relatively minor faults to turn into cascading failures. Solar and wind energy provide benefits and can support grid stability; however, several challenges and gaps in understanding must be explored and addressed before this can be realized. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of grid codes, modeling techniques, and tools, as well as current methods for responding to various faults. It also presents an overview of the industry's state as it relates to grid fault response in the presence of inverter-based resources.