INTEGRATED CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING MODE, SYNCHRONIZATION, POWER FACTOR, AND UTILITY OUTAGE RIDE-THROUGH FOR MICROPOWER GENERATION SYSTEMS

An integrated system for comprehensive control of an electric power generation system utilizes state machine control having particularly defined control states and permitted control state transitions. In this way, accurate, dependable and safe control of the electric power generation system is provided. Several of these control states may be utilized in conjunction with a utility outage ride-through technique that compensates for a utility outage by predictably controlling the system to bring the system off-line and to bring the system back on-line when the utility returns. Furthermore, a line synchronization technique synchronizes the generated power with the power on the grid when coming back on-line. The line synchronization technique limits the rate of synchronization to permit undesired transient voltages. The line synchronization technique operates in either a stand-alone mode wherein the line frequency is synthesized or in a connected mode which sensed the grid frequency and synchronizes the generated power to this senses grid frequency. The system also includes power factor control via the line synchronization technique or via an alternative power factor control technique. The result is an integrated system providing a high degree of control for an electric power generation system.