Power Quality and Rooftop-Photovoltaic Households: An Examination of Measured Data at Point of Customer Connection

Abstract

Photovoltaics (PVs) have been widely reported as causing power quality problems for electricity distribution networks. Much of this literature gives the impression that networks, particularly low voltage networks, were effectively and proficiently managed and operated before the rise of PVs and that this new technology is causing problems that did not previously exist and would not currently exist if there were no rooftop PV systems. The purpose of this paper is to examine measured data of power quality at the customer service point of four random households in four different distribution networks in Australia. This is the first report of power quality examination from the perspective of the end-user (solar households). The results show that the low voltage distribution networks reported in this study do not have networks that meet required power quality standards-and this cannot be attributed to the rooftop PV systems reported here. The paper proposes that power quality failures in these low voltage networks could be attributed to poor historical management, missed opportunities to embrace PVs as a means of better network management, lack of acknowledgement of the emergence of the prosumer and lack of total quality management and systems thinking.

Control Strategy of a Hybrid Energy Storage System to Smooth Photovoltaic Power Fluctuations Considering Photovoltaic Output Power Curtailment

“…The second step, according to the requirements of PV power fluctuations, the power demand of the HESS P * HESS (t), which is used to smooth the current power fluctuation, can be calculated by (4).…”

“…For example, statistics show that the maximum power fluctuation of a PV plant can reach 60%/s of its installed capacity [2]. As the penetration of PV increases, if the PV power is directly injected into the utility grid without any control, such high-frequency power fluctuations will cause voltage fluctuations, thereby reducing the reliability and power quality of the power system [3,4]. Therefore, the power fluctuations of PV should be limited to a certain range, for example, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) requires that the maximum power fluctuation of a PV plant should be less than 10%/min of its installed capacity [5].…”

Harmonic Analysis of Grid-Connected Solar PV Systems with Nonlinear Household Loads in Low-Voltage Distribution Networks

“…For sustainable operation of the power system, harmonic analysis facilitates the integration of grid-connected solar PV into the system. To gauge the harmonic impacts triggered by grid-connected solar PV systems, several studies have been performed over the past few years [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. For example, Ref.…”

“…The authors of [18] investigated the influence of high penetration of three-phase and single-phase rooftop PV systems by considering the individual as well as total generation capacity inside the grid. In [16,17,19], the behavior of practical rooftop grid-connected PV systems in Brazilian, Croatian, and Australian distribution networks, respectively, were examined.…”

Integrated arrangement of advanced power electronics through hybrid smart grid system

“…Later the DC transmission line is directed to the DC to AC inverter for the transformation of AC electricity. In [12][13][14][15] review PE as DC converters in smart grid fuel cells system that shows the ability to produce more efficient conversion of power from the fuel cell to the load. Using a DC converter or a combination of DC converters, it might meet up the limitations of fuel cell, which include unregulated voltage, low voltage, low current density, and unstable power.…”