This paper introduces a study of utilizing solar energy farm that is integrated with the national grid based on intensive data availability of solar energy in Jordan. The study discusses the impact and the ability of integrating solar farms into the national grid of Jordan. The study considerd different cases and, various power system studies for connection points of solar farms to medium voltage networks. Among these studies are short circuit level, voltage profile and power losses. The main objective of the study is to analyze impacts of integration of solar farms on distribution systems of the chosen areas. Photovoltaic (PV) system with varying penetration levels are integrated at different locations (connection points) into the distribution network. Calculations are performed and models are built using actual data obtained from the Jordanian power grid with PV interconnection. The effect of the short circuit level, voltage profile and power losses in the distribution system are also analyzed. Finally, the most suitable method of connecting the solar farm to the national power network is recommended.

Surge arresters are over voltage protection devices that provide protection to power transmission and distribution systems from over voltages caused by lightning surges, switching operations in power systems and temporary over voltages caused by faults. However, they are subjected to aging due to environmental conditions and overheating. Therefore to avoid catastrophic failures of surge arresters, it is necessary to evaluate their performance either by online monitoring or offline testing of the resistive leakage current which is considered as one of most techniques for assessing the degradation level of surge arresters. This paper presents an efficient technique for decomposition of leakage currents of surge arresters using discrete Fourier transform. The paper aims to decompose the leakage current, either internal or external, into its resistive and capacitive components. After, separating the two current components, the third harmonic resistive current, which is considered an important indicator of SA degradation, is extracted from the resistive current component. In this paper, diagnosis of three different 33 kV, 10 kA distribution-class surge arresters, namely Zinc Oxide Polymeric-, Zinc Oxide Silicon Rubber-and Silicon Carbide Porcelain-housed surge arresters is presented. Both the internal and the external currents were measured for each arrester up to its maximum continuous operating voltage.