INTEGRATING HIGH PENETRATIONS OF PV INTO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

ABSTRACT: California regulators recently approved a plan proposed by Southern California Edison (SCE) to install 500 MW of distributed photovoltaic (PV) energy in its utility service territory over the next 5 years. The installations will include 250 MW of utility-owned solar and 250 MW of independently owned solar. SCE expects that the majority of these systems will be commercial-scale rooftop PV systems connected at various points in the distribution system. Each of the SCE rooftop PV systems will typically have a rating of 1-3 MW. To understand the impact of high-penetration PV on the distribution grid, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and SCE brought together a team of experts in resource assessment, distribution modeling, and planning to help analyze the impacts of adding high penetration of PV into the distribution system. Through modeling and simulation, laboratory testing, and field demonstrations, the team will address the issues identified in the analysis by fully examining the challenges, developing solutions, and transitioning those solutions to the field for large-scale deployment. This paper gives an update on the project and discusses technical results of integrating a large number of distributed PV systems into the grid