Undamped power and voltage swings of synchronous generators due to severe disturbances may make power systems unstable. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes a control scheme of active and reactive power outputs of a photovoltaic (PV) generator equipped with power oscillation dampers (PODs). The PODs with second-order lead/lag structure are installed in the active and reactive power control loops of the PV. The POD parameters in both control loops are simultaneously optimized so that the power and voltage swings are minimized. Solving the optimization problem by the particle swarm optimization, the optimal parameters of PODs can be automatically achieved. Simulation study demonstrates that the stabilizing performance of the PV with the optimal POD is superior to that of the PV with the non-optimal POD against various power flow levels and severe faults.
