Reactive power consumption in photovoltaic inverters: a novel configuration for voltage regulation in low-voltage radial feeders with no need for central control

High photovoltaic (PV) system generation in low-voltage feeders can cause voltage rise especially in low demand conditions. The conventional way of coping with voltage violation is disconnection of the PV systems or curtailment of the generated power. To address this issue, a novel configuration for voltage management in a radial feeder via regulated reactive power capability in PV inverters is presented. The novelty of the proposed configuration is based on the fact that all the PV inverters with the ability to consume reactive power are involved in voltage regulation without being centrally controlled. In order to apply the configuration, a reference voltage is initially estimated for each PV system and the PV inverters are calibrated accordingly. These settings depend on the feeder topology and can be calculated by the distribution network operator with a simple power flow modelling tool. Finally, the article presents a sensitivity analysis in order to examine how reactive power consumption in a single inverter influences PV penetration and inverter sizing at various PV topologies along the feeder.

PAPAIOANNOU Ioulia;  PURVINS Arturs;  DEMOULIAS Charis; 

2015-09-14

WILEY-BLACKWELL

JRC77253

1062-7995,   

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pip.2477/pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC77253,   

10.1002/pip.2477,