Voltage Regulation in Radial Distribution Feeders with High Penetration of Photovoltaic

Abstract

Overvoltages are one of the main reasons for limiting the amount of active power that can be exported by a microgrid and injected into a low voltage (LV) distribution system. The well-known trade offs used in medium voltage (MV) feeders need to be revisited considering the fact that the impedance of LV feeders is mostly resistive with large R/XL ratios. This digests investigates the impact of active power and reactive power variation on the voltage and losses of a radial LV distribution feeder with uniformly distributed loads and non-dispatchable (active power) sources. The feeder characteristics as well as the net active power of the buses are considered in the analysis. This shall give indications on how to decide between PV units with overrated inverters, for additional capacity of reactive power control, or energy storage devices, so as to minimize overvoltages during peak power production.