Mitigation of Transformer Inrush Current Using PV Energy

Integration of photovoltaic (PV) energy into the electrical power system is increasing with the development in the PV technology. Transformer magnetizing inrush current problem occurs due to switching the trans-former into the service. This paper proposes an inrush current reduction technique using the PV power. The proposed procedure applies an opposite flux on the transformer using the PV power, then connect the trans-former with the electrical power network at a suitable instant of the grid voltage waveform. The switching in-stant depends upon the flux produced in the transformer primary winding by the PV system. The proposed procedure is applied on a single phase system and simulated in MATLAB R2012a/SIMULINK. The simula-tion results illustrate the suitable instant of switching to reduce the magnetizing inrush current and the corre-sponding total harmonic distortion (THD). Keywords: Grid-connected photovoltaic system, MATLAB, PV energy, PV model transformer inrush current reduction, total harmonic distortion, waveform.