Integrating Large-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plants into the Grid

The electric power industry in the U. S. will undergo radical change unlike any it has seen in its history as the renewable portfolio standards [RPS] of over 26 States are implemented during the next decade. The application queues of the largest RTO's in the U.S. are dominated by dispersed, intermittent renewable power generators such as wind and photovoltaics [PV]. Now that over half the States in the U.S. have adopted aggressive RPS, with some like Maine calling for as much as 40% renewables in the next decade, the issues of how a large penetration of dispersed renewables can be reliably integrated into the grid must come to the forefront of the technology discussion. The authors contend that the major challenge facing the U.S. electric power industry of the 21st century is fulfilling its societal obligations to be simultaneously reliable, economically priced and environmentally responsible as this most pervasive technological system grows into a new level of complexity under RPS requirements, deregulation and industry restructuring. This paper discusses as an example the origin and construction of a key grid scale PV power plant in Pennsylvania (the first on PJM) as well as how the free market forces have responded to federal tax incentives and regulatory-based incentives to integrate photovoltaics into the PJM grid. We describe how aggressive public policy has played an important role in that transition.