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Field Demonstration of Using Advanced PV Inverter Functionality to Mitigate the Impacts of High-Penetration PV Grid Integration on the Distribution System

Conference ·
This paper describes a field demonstration that was completed to show the ability of currently installed PV inverters to implement advanced PV inverter functionality and that such functionality was effective at reducing the voltage-related PV impacts of high-penetration PV integration. A distribution circuit was instrumented and then tested for a two week period using off-unity power factor operation. Specifically, an inductive power factor of -0.95 was demonstrated. The results show that the PV inverters were capable of such operation and that the use of off-unity power factor operation was highly effective at reducing the voltage-related impacts of the PV systems interconnected to the circuits used in the demonstration. The impacts of using off-unity power factor operation - resulting in additional reactive current flow on the distribution circuit - are also presented and analyzed.
Research Organization:
NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States))
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1250685
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5D00-63633
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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