With the increasing capacity of photovoltaic (PV) power plants connected to power systems, PV plants are often required to have some reactive power control capabilities to participate in reactive power regulation. Reactive power regulation of grid-connected PV inverters can be achieved using different control strategies. In this paper, the reactive power capability of inverters and the technical requirement of PV plants are analyzed. The reactive power capability of a 30 MW PV plant is evaluated against relevant technical standards using a new testing method proposed in this paper.

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The regular performance deterioration of P-type crystalline silicon solar modules and module strings caused by potential-induced degradation in a photovoltaic power plant was found in the field. The PID-affected solar modules dismounted from the photovoltaic power plant were further investigated systematically in the laboratory. For the first time, we found that the neutral point of voltage in a module string moved forward to the positive pole for a PID-affected module string as time goes on. Even if low positive voltage is applied to a PID-prone module, it could cause PID. The thermographic and electroluminescence (EL) images of a PID-affected module string also exhibit a regular degradation pattern. This is in good agreement with the measured power loss of the dismounted solar modules under standard test conditions. The results obtained in this paper show that the maximum power degradation rate of solar modules was as high as 53.26% after only one year of operation because of PID in the field. Due to the vast amount of solar modules and incomplete recovery, this is a terrible catastrophe for the owner of a power plant and module producer.

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