The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 13, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 30, 2011
Richard Travis West, Ragged Point, CA (US);
Richard Travis West, Ragged Point, CA (US);
Renewable Power Conversion, Inc., San Luis Obispo, CA (US);
Abstract
A device and method is disclosed for providing electrical grid-tied power converter anti-islanding protection, which is autonomous to the operation of the power converter. The device can protect any number of paralleled power converters and can independently detect an islanding condition. The method involves actively perturbing the electrical grid at a common point of coupling between converter and grid, observing the effect of the perturbation, comparing the perturbed and non-perturbed grid characteristics and disconnecting the converter from the grid if an island is indicated. Perturbation is accomplished by switching a reactive load or loads onto the grid or by changing a transformer tap. The invention is targeted for solar photovoltaic applications where a number of distributed power converters are used. The invention eliminates the interaction of anti-islanding algorithms between multiple power converters, determines islanding conditions with a greater degree of certainty and reduces current distortion over prior-art anti-islanding methods.