Probabilistic Approach to the Design of Photovoltaic Distributed Generation in Low Voltage Feeder

This paper presents the probabilistic approach to the design of photovoltaic (PV) distributed generation (DG) and its impact on low voltage (LV) feeder. Monte Carlo simulation is used to predict solar radiation and load, and an exact method is used to solve the power flow. The method is tested on two study cases, and the results are compared with those from deterministic approach based on commonly used scenarios. The probabilistic approach is shown necessary to obtain the optimum PV rating based on technical constraints and different objectives, including accepting a reasonable risk when needed. The results also indicate that PV-DG in a realistic case will most probably improve the voltage profile and decrease the losses on LV feeders