Confirming Ride-through Conformance for Grid-tied Inverters with Automated Oscilloscope Measurements

Standards, such as IEEE-1547, have been developed to ensure compatibility and mutual support between the grid and local, distributed energy systems. Formal testing for ensuring compliance of photovoltaic (PV), energy storage systems (ESS) and grid-tied inverters (GTI) in general, is often performed by specialist test companies, but it can be useful for designers to be able to reliably measure ride-through and optimize ride-through performance using readily available tools such as oscilloscopes.

This application note

• Gives a basic overview of the rationale behind ride-through measurements
• Describes an oscilloscope-based system for testing ride-through
• Explains how special oscilloscope measurements can be used to validate an inverter’s low voltage ride-through (LVRT) and high voltage ride-through (HVRT) performance
• Gives examples of low voltage ride-through and high voltage ride-through measurements

The instrument used in this application note is a 5 Series B Mixed Signal Oscilloscope equipped with Advanced Power Measurement and Analysis software (Option 5-PWR). A comparably-equipped 4 Series B MSO or 6 Series B MSO will operate almost identically.