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PV Hosting Capacity Estimation: Experiences with Scalable Framework

Conference ·

Hosting capacity is an indication of the amount of solar photovoltaics (PV) that can be hosted in a distribution system without additional changes to infrastructure or oper-ations. This paper presents a framework for estimating the PV hosting capacity at scale. First, we analyze computational, modeling and other key challenges of performing relevant, large-scale simulations, provided along with the experiences and lessons learned. Then, we develop two open-source Python-based software tools to conduct repeatable distribution analyses: the Distribution Integration Solution Cost Options (DISCO) for configuring and analyzing simulations and the Job Automation and Deployment Engine (JADE) for parallelizing jobs on high-performance computing clusters. A case study of hosting capacity estimation for the SMART-DS San Francisco (SFO) 2000+ synthetic feeders, is used to demonstrate the capability of the developed DISCO+JADE framework and tools. The framework and tools can help utilities assess the overall hosting capacity of their service territory, which can help them better plan for the overall upgrade costs to integrate more PV in the future. The experiences are shared to aid the tool users and researchers to conduct relevant studies and research.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1913968
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-6A40-85072; MainId:85845; UUID:ac06be2c-4729-4c08-b69c-22a08192e2cd; MainAdminID:68516
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the 2022 IEEE 49th Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC), 5-10 June 2022, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Related Information: 81851
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (8)

Building Large-Scale U.S. Synthetic Electric Distribution System Models journal November 2020
On Distributed PV Hosting Capacity Estimation, Sensitivity Study, and Improvement journal July 2017
Determining maximum photovoltaic penetration in a distribution grid considering grid operation limits conference July 2014
Distribution system costs associated with the deployment of photovoltaic systems journal July 2018
Dynamic hosting capacity analysis for distributed photovoltaic resources—Framework and case study journal December 2020
Statistical analysis of feeder and locational PV hosting capacity for 216 feeders conference July 2016
State-of-the-art of hosting capacity in modern power systems with distributed generation journal January 2019
Supervised Learning for Distribution Secondary Systems Modeling: Improving Solar Interconnection Processes journal April 2022