Impact of PV units in LV feeders on distribution system reliability

Abstract

Re-supplying loads on outage through cross-connect from adjacent feeders in a distribution system may cause voltage drop and hence require load shedding. However, the surplus PV generated in some of the LV feeders can prevent load shedding, and improve reliability. In order to measure these effects, this paper proposes the application of Direct Load Flow method[1] in reliability evaluation of distribution systems with PV units. As part of this study, seasonal impacts on load consumption together with surplus PV output power injection to higher voltage networks are also considered. New indices are proposed to measure yearly expected energy export, from LV to MV and from MV to higher voltage network.

PV Hosting Capacity in LV Networks by Combining Customer Voltage Sensitivity and Reliability Analysis

“…This makes the computation of the system's reliability evaluation quite complex, especially for long-term system planning. Therefore, there is a need to assess the reliability of LV networks amidst the increasing penetration of distributed generation [11]. This paper considers the influence of PV microgeneration technologies on the overall network performance and quality of supply of LV residential customers, which further contributes to the network models and demand-response scenarios developed by the authors in [12,13], assessing the changes in active/reactive power flows, system losses, voltage profiles, and harmonic emissions due to the combined effects of implementing microgeneration, energy storage, and demand-response.…”