High Penetration Photovoltaic Case Study Report
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Technical concerns with integrating higher penetrations of photovoltaic (PV) systems include grid stability, voltage regulation, power quality (voltage rise, sags, flicker, and frequency fluctuations), and protection and coordination. The current utility grid was designed to accommodate power flows from the central generation source to the transmission system and eventually to the distribution feeders. At the distribution level, the system was designed to carry power from the substation toward the load. Renewable distributed generation, particularly solar PV, provides power at the distribution level challenging this classical paradigm. As these resources become more commonplace the nature of the distribution network and its operation is changing to handle power flow in both directions. A large portion of distribution system components, including voltage regulators and protection systems, were not designed to coordinate with bidirectional power flow and bidirectional fault currents from distributed generation and PV systems in particular. Coordinating these devices in the presence of high penetration PV areas introduces additional challenges to feasibility and system impact studies. Some cases require modification of existing protection schemes, additional distribution equipment, or reactive power requirements on the PV inverters. This report is focused on large PV installations in which penetration is significantly greater than 15% of maximum daytime feeder load. To date the impact on the electric utility and its customers has not been problematic in any of these cases. The PV system installations described in this report exceeds what most experts consider high penetration scenarios. The voltage, power quality, and other operating parameters have been maintained within the required ranges with minimal negative impact on distribution operations and utility customers. These case studies are intended to demonstrate success stories with integration of large PV plants at the distribution level as well as some of the solutions used by the utility to ensure safe, reliable operation of both the PV system and the distribution network.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1062441
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP--5500-54742
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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