Evaluating the Risk of Exceeding the Normal Operating Conditions of a Low-Voltage Distribution Network due to Photovoltaic Generation

Roman Korab, Marcin Połomski and Marcin Smołka
Additional contact information
Roman Korab: Department of Power Systems and Control, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Marcin Połomski: Department of Algorithmics and Software, Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Marcin Smołka: TAURON Polska Energia S.A. and Joint Doctoral School, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-35

Abstract: Connecting photovoltaic micro-installations to a low-voltage network changes the operating conditions of the network. As a result, in certain situations, the permissible operating limits may be periodically exceeded. The risk of exceeding the normal operating conditions of the network depends on multiple factors, including the installed capacity of the photovoltaic sources. In this article, we use a time-series method to determine the annual risks of exceeding the bus voltage limits, the rated current of the lines and transformer, and the acceptable limit of the negative sequence component of bus voltage, as well as the risk of a reverse flow occurring, and the risk of energy losses increasing. We calculate these risks for different levels of penetration of the photovoltaic sources, different divisions of the rated power of the photovoltaic sources between individual phases, and different consumer load profiles. We perform calculations on a CIGRE test network using OpenDSS and statistical meteorological data for the Katowice (Poland) weather station. The results obtained indicate that connecting photovoltaic micro-installations to a low-voltage network has the greatest impact on the risk of reverse flow occurring and the risk of energy losses increasing. In addition, the risk of overvoltage and branch overload increases substantially. The method we present allows one to determine the value of the hosting capacity of a given low-voltage network, ensuring that the assumed risk of exceeding the normal operating conditions of the network is retained.

Keywords: photovoltaic micro-installation; prosumer; low-voltage network; grid impact; hosting capacity; risk evaluation; time-series method; OpenDSS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/6/1969/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/6/1969/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:6:p:1969-:d:766629

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().