High penetration levels of distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation on an
electrical distribution circuit may severely degrade power quality due to
voltage sags and swells caused by rapidly varying PV generation during cloud
transients coupled with the slow response of existing utility compensation and
regulation equipment. Although not permitted under current standards for
interconnection of distributed generation, fast-reacting, VAR-capable PV
inverters may provide the necessary reactive power injection or consumption to
maintain voltage regulation under difficult transient conditions. As side
benefit, the control of reactive power injection at each PV inverter provides
an opportunity and a new tool for distribution utilities to optimize the
performance of distribution circuits, e.g. by minimizing thermal losses. We
suggest a local control scheme that dispatches reactive power from each PV
inverter based on local instantaneous measurements of the real and reactive
components of the consumed power and the real power generated by the PVs. Using
one adjustable parameter per circuit, we balance the requirements on power
quality and desire to minimize thermal losses. Numerical analysis of two
exemplary systems, with comparable total PV generation albeit a different
spatial distribution, show how to adjust the optimization parameter depending
on the goal. Overall, this local scheme shows excellent performance; it's
capable of guaranteeing acceptable power quality and achieving significant
saving in thermal losses in various situations even when the renewable
generation in excess of the circuit own load, i.e. feeding power back to the
higher-level system.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to IEEE SmartGridComm 201
