DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Assessing the vulnerability of solar inverters to EMPs: Port testing, PCI modeling, and protection strategies

Journal Article · · Measurement

Renewable energy sources are becoming an ever-larger contributor to the power grid. These renewable energy sources depend upon the power electronic devices, specifically inverters, being essential for connecting Photovoltaic (PV) generation to the grid. However, the Electromagnetic Pulses (EMPs) caused by the high-altitude nuclear explosions can generate fast broad-band pulses with nanosecond rise time, potentially causing damage or destruction to electronic components. To assess the vulnerability of PV inverters to high-altitude EMPs, the port testing and Pulsed Current Injection (PCI) modeling schemes are proposed based on the port impedance analysis. Wide-band frequency measurements are achieved by fusing impedance results from three vector network analyzers. Then, a PCI model is used to simulate the induced response to EMP, with two typical immunity levels of EC5 and EC8 tested. Here, the experiment successfully excites the induced voltage and current under EMP, where the voltage and current can reach 1500V/40A and 8000V/150Aunder EC5 andEC8, respectively. The port vulnerability analysis results demonstrate that only some ports can survive under EC5. To defend against the impact of EMP, three protection strategies are discussed.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2267625
Journal Information:
Measurement, Journal Name: Measurement Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 224; ISSN 0263-2241
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (22)

An improved protection strategy based on PCC-SVM algorithm for identification of high impedance arcing fault in smart microgrids in the presence of distributed generation journal April 2021
Modeling of PV Module and DC/DC Converter Assembly for the Analysis of Induced Transient Response Due to Nearby Lightning Strike journal January 2021
Lightning Surge Analysis on a Large Scale Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic System journal December 2017
Research on effectiveness of lightning impulses with different parameters for detecting protrusion defects in GIS journal August 2020
Synchronous Generator Vulnerability Assessment Against Solar and HEMP MHD-E3 GIC conference April 2021
Towards Developing Implementable High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse E3 Mitigation Strategies for Large-Scale Electric Grids conference February 2022
Pulsed Current Injection Setup and Procedure to Reproduce Intense Transient Electromagnetic Disturbances journal December 2018
Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP): A Study of General Trends, Simulation Analysis of E1 HEMP Coupling and Protection Strategies conference November 2021
Study of an integrated optical sensor with mono-shielding electrode for intense transient E-field measurement journal April 2014
Circuit Modeling of Injection Probes for Bulk Current Injection journal August 2007
Decomposition integration and error correction method for photovoltaic power forecasting journal February 2023
Mitigation of Lightning-Induced Overvoltages in Medium Voltage Distribution Lines by Means of Periodical Grounding of Shielding Wires and of Surge Arresters: Modeling and Experimental Validation journal January 2004
Modeling, Design, Control, and Implementation of a Modified Z-Source Integrated PV/Grid/EV DC Charger/Inverter journal June 2018
Proposal of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Coupling Estimation Method to Power System including Load condition and Surge Protection Device (SPD) conference July 2020
Overvoltages on DC Side of Power Conditioning System Caused by Lightning Stroke to Structure Anchoring Photovoltaic Panels journal April 2014
PLC-based Impedance Measurement and Current Injection Response Analysis conference October 2021
Recent trends in solar PV inverter topologies journal May 2019
Lightning electromagnetic pulse simulation using 3D-FDTD method (Comparison between PEC and UPLMBoundary Conditions) conference September 2016
Solar panel inspection techniques and prospects journal March 2023
Toward an Electromagnetic Event Resilient Grid journal April 2021
Power Grid Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Disturbances: A Literature Review conference October 2019
Renewable energy and climate change journal April 2022