Reactive power management to enhance solar energy penetration in small grids: technical and framework approaches B. González-Díaz, J.F. Gómez-González, D. Cañadillas-Ramallo, J.A. Méndez-Pérez and R. Guerrero-Lemus   2019/07/15

Abstract

In the last few years, rising environmental concerns and especially, cost reductions that photovoltaic technology has experienced, have led to an unprecedented increase in the deployment of photovoltaic systems all over the world. Although nowadays most of the installed photovoltaic capacity is due to utility-scale plants, medium- and small-scale plants connected to distribution systems are becoming increasingly more frequent. Distribution networks were originally designed assuming a centralized operation, and the growing penetration of distributed generators is arising both technical and regulatory issues. In this work, we summarize different approaches from the technical and framework point of view.

Authors and affiliations

B. González-Díaz1, J.F. Gómez-González1, D. Cañadillas-Ramallo2, J.A. Méndez-Pérez3 and R.
Guerrero-Lemus2
1. Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Escuela Superior de Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Escuela Superior de Ingeniería y Tecnología, (Tenerife), España
2. Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), (Tenerife), España.
3. Departamento de Ingeniería Informática y de Sistemas, Escuela Superior de Ingeniería y Tecnología,
Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), (Tenerife), España.

Key words

Reactive power management, photovoltaic energy, control strategies.

References

[1] M. T. L. Gayatri, A. M. Parimi, and A. V. Pavan Kumar, “A review of reactive power compensation techniques in microgrids,” Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 81, no. August 2017, pp. 1030–1036, 2018.
[2] A. Jäger-Waldau, “Snapshot of photovoltaics-March 2017,” Sustain., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1–9, 2017.
[3] A. Jaeger-Valdau, PV Status Report 2017, no. November. 2017.
[4] WWEA, “Word Wind Energy Association,” 2018. [Online]. Available:
http://wwindea.org/blog/2018/02/12/2017-statistics/. [Accessed: 15-Jan-2019].
[5] S. Bielecki and T. Skoczkowski, “An enhanced concept of Q-power management,” Energy, vol. 162, pp. 335–353, 2018.
[6] R. Passey, T. Spooner, I. MacGill, M. Watt, and K. Syngellakis, “The potential impacts of grid-connected distributed generation and how to address them: A review of technical and non-technical factors,” EnergyPolicy, vol. 39, no. 10, pp. 6280–6290, 2011.
[7] O. Gandhi, C. D. Rodríguez-Gallegos, W. Zhang, D. Srinivasan, and T. Reindl, “Economic and technical analysis of reactive power provision from distributed energy resources in microgrids,” Appl. Energy, vol. 210, no. August 2017, pp. 827–841, 2018.
[8] S. X. Chen, Y. S. F. Eddy, H. B. Gooi, M. Q. Wang, and S. F. Lu, “A centralized reactive power compensation
system for LV distribution networks,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 274–284, 2015.
[9] J. Zhao, Z. Zhang, J. Yao, S. Yang, and K. Wang, “A distributed optimal reactive power flow for global transmission and distribution network,” Int. J. Electr. Power Energy Syst., vol. 104, no. February 2018, pp. 524–536, 2019.
[10] J. F. Gómez-González et al., “Reactive power management in photovoltaic installations connected to low-voltage grids to avoid active power curtailment .,” in International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality (ICREPQ’18), 2018, no. 16.
[11] R. G. Wandhare and V. Agarwal, “Reactive power capacity enhancement of a PV-grid system to increase PV penetration level in smart grid scenario,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1845–1854, 2014.
[12] S. Sayah, “Modified differential evolution approach for practical optimal reactive power dispatch of hybrid AC–
DC power systems,” Appl. Soft Comput. J., vol. 73, pp. 591–606, 2018.
[13] M. Ghaljehei, Z. Soltani, J. Lin, G. B. Gharehpetian, and M. A. Golkar, “Stochastic multi-objective optimal energy and reactive power dispatch considering cost, loading margin and coordinated reactive power reserve management,” Electr. Power Syst. Res., vol. 166, no. October 2018, pp. 163–177, 2019.
[14] W. S. Sakr, R. A. EL-Sehiemy, and A. M. Azmy, “Adaptive differential evolution algorithm for efficient reactive power management,” Appl. Soft Comput. J., vol. 53, pp. 336–351, 2017.
[15] S. Ahsan and A. S. Siddiqui, “Dynamic compensation of real and reactive power in wind farms using STATCOM,” Perspect. Sci., vol. 8, pp. 519–521, 2016.
[16] H. Amaris and M. Alonso, “Coordinated reactive power management in power networks with wind turbines and
FACTS devices,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 52, no. 7, pp. 2575–2586, 2011.
[17] National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), “Advanced inverter functions to support high levels of distributed solar,” 2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/62612.pdf. [Accessed: 15-Jan-2019].
[18] L. Collins and J. K. Ward, “Real and reactive power control of distributed PV inverters for overvoltage prevention and increased renewable generation hosting capacity,” Renew. Energy, vol. 81, pp. 464–471, 2015.
[19] D. Cañadillas-Ramallo et al., “Voltage profile analysis and performance of a photovoltaic power plant in a small low voltage distribution grid in Tenerife Island,” Electr. Eng. Electron. J., vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 1–2, 2016.