Evaluating maximum photovoltaic integration in district distribution systems considering optimal inverter dispatch and cloud shading conditions

Abstract

As photovoltaic (PV) integration increases in distribution systems, to investigate the maximum allowable PV integration capacity for a district distribution system becomes necessary in the planning phase, an optimisation model is thus proposed to evaluate the maximum PV integration capacity while guaranteeing the entire system operating constraints (e.g. network voltage magnitude) within reasonable ranges in this study. Meanwhile, optimal inverter dispatch is employed to further improve the PV integration by ensuring the optimal set‐points of both active power and reactive power for the PV inverters. However, the intermittency of solar PV energy (e.g. due to passing clouds) may affect the PV generation in the district distribution network. To address this issue, the voltage magnitude constraints under the cloud shading conditions should be taken into account in the optimisation model, which can be formulated as a mixed integer non‐linear non‐convex programming. Furthermore, a sequential interior‐point method is utilised to solve this problem. Case studies on the IEEE 33‐bus, 69‐bus distribution networks and two practical distribution networks in China demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Decentralised‐distributed hybrid voltage regulation of power distribution networks based on power inverters

“…For low-voltage distribution networks, the resistance to reactance ratio (R/X) is relatively high compared with high-voltage transmission networks, therefore, according to (1), the bus voltages are affected by both real ΔP and reactive power ΔQ changes. Especially when PV units experience shading effects, due to cloud movements, PV power output fluctuation may become severe and create significant voltage fluctuations in weak networks [24]. The power inverters can achieve fast voltage regulation through flexibly changing the ΔP and ΔQ at each bus.…”

Reducing the Unfairness of Coordinated Inverter Dispatch in PV-Rich Distribution Networks

“…Reference [16] defines PV hosting capacity as the total solar PV capacity that can be installed without adverse effects on the network, such as overvoltage. Since we ensure that voltage is maintained within the operational limits by reactive power support or additional curtailment, the PV hosting capacity is not an appropriate measure for the comparison of OID, FOID, and Volt/VAr models.…”

Assessment of flexibility index integration into the expansion planning of clean power resources and energy storage systems in modern distribution network using benders decomposition

“…In this technique, upper bound and lower bound of the problem are defined using constraints (33) and (34). Finally, iteration of the solution approach is terminated when the difference between magnitude of upper bound and lower bound becomes less than ε…”