EC-9030

Electricity Generation from Renewable Energy Sources

LITERATURE REVIEW ON
IMPACTS OF RENEWABLE AND DISTRIBUTED ENERGY
RESOURCES IN SRI LANKAN ELECTRICITY GRID

2014/E/011

Introduction

Renewable energy is the energy collected from renewable resources, naturally replenished on
human timescale, namely sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. And distributed
generation/ distributed energy/ on-site generation or district/ decentralized energy is the generation
of electricity and storage done by a variety of small, grid connected devices known as distributed
energy resources (DER). With the increased usage of these renewable energy resources and
distributed energy resources, numerous advantages have been achieved as well as a number of
issues have been developed.

DR (Distributed Resources) cause voltage issues, such as, impact on the system voltage,
interaction of DR and capacitor operations, and interaction of DR and voltage regulator and LTC
operations. It also causes protection issues like, fuse coordination, feeding faults after system
protection opens up, impact on interrupting ratings of devices, adjacent feeder faults, fault
detection, impacts on ground sources, single phase interruption on the three phase line, re-closer
coordination and conductor burn-down. Adverse impacts of DR penetrations like, exposing system
and customer equipment to potential damage, decrement in power quality, reliability decrement,
extended time for the restoration of the system after an outage and potential risks to public and
safety of the workers. Such impacts of the usage of renewable energy sources and distributed
energy resources will be discussed in detail under this literature review.
A standard for interconnecting distributed resources with the Electric Power Systems has being
provided by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers which is denoted by “IEEE 1547”.
This is supposed to provide a set of criteria and requirements for the purpose of interconnecting
distributed generation resources in the power grids. Even though the standard cites the
requirements for the DG interconnection operation it offers only a very few options to meet these
requirements. Major issues like the potential overvoltage, interconnection transformer choices,
loss of utility relay coordination, and application of DG on secondary grid networks, damage to
DG generators due to the unbalances current due to utility single phasing and out of step protection
are not addressed to a considerable level in the standards.

DG Generator types and their impacts

The IEEE 1547 standard describes three basic types of DG generators namely, induction
generators, synchronous generators and inverter based generators. Out of these three type of
generators, induction generators and synchronous generators are the two common generator types
that operate interconnected with the power system, where the inverter based generators
(asynchronous generators) do not operate in synchronism with the power system.

When induction DGs are considered, they can provide fault current for only a very few number of
cycles, for faults on the power system. The interconnection protection required by these DGs are
only over/under voltage and frequency relaying. These type of generators are being used in wind
applications.

Synchronous generators can provide sustained fault currents for faults occurring in the power
system, and they are typically being used in internal combustion engines (diesels), gas turbines,
and small hydro generators. When synchronous generators are used as DRs, they consume reactive
power from the system, where the effects on the voltage profile are very similar to the operation
of an induction generator operation when they consume the same amount of reactive power.

Asynchronous generators are used in micro-turbines, fuel cells, and photovoltaic technologies.
These devices make use of static power converters (SPCs) to be connected to the utility system.
The digital electronic control of the SPC regulates the power output of the device and shuts down
the machine when the power system is unavailable. They provide only a few cycles of current for
system faults. Some generators have built-in ant islanding protection to detect when the generators
does not operate parallel with the system.

When induction or synchronous DGs are islanded with pole-top capacitors and the generator
capacity is closer to the islanded load, a resonant condition is produced where a non-sinusoidal
overvoltage can occur. Larger the synchronous DG, the greater the chance that it will contribute
significant current to a power system fault. The major damaging condition that can impose on
synchronous and induction generators by the power system is single phasing.

When a DG is separated from the power system, islanding cannot be performed with the utility
load external to the DG facility. This causes restoration issues for the utility and also potential
power quality issues. DGs cannot maintain voltage, frequency and harmonics within the acceptable
levels at the utility external to the DG facility. Reclosing of the circuit is highly complicated and
requires synchronizing equipment. DGs can island with the local load at the DG facility when the
generation is enough to supply the load.

Interconnection Transformer Grounding impacts

For Synchronous generator DG interconnections, L-N rated transformers and lightning arrestors
will damage due to over voltages depending on the DG interconnection transformer. Five types of
transformer connections are used to inter-connect the DGs to the power system.
 Figure 1 Types of transformer grounding and their impacts

Impacts due to DG Ferro-resonance

This occurs when an isolated generator is connected to the system having capacitance equal or
greater than the magnetizing reactance requirements. Over voltages can be caused due to ferro-
resonance. Surge arresters can clip the over-voltage peaks but will not suppress the ferro-resonance
condition but they might also get damaged during the process. The solution for this issue is to trip
the DG to take off the driving source. IEEE 1547 does not mention these issues of DG ferro-
resonance.

Impacts of DR on system voltage

Standards specify that the DR should not actively regulate the distribution system voltages, where
it is prohibited to automatically or manually adjust the DR reactive power in response to the voltage
changes. Attempting to regulate the distribution system voltage by a DR can have an issue with
the existing voltage regulation schemes of the utility to regulate the same or a closer point to a
different reference voltage. Even if the DR does not engage in the controlling of the system voltage,
it can cause voltage changes along the feeder depending upon the DR type, control method, its
delivered power and feeder parameters.

DRs when connected in small residential areas sharing a distribution transformer can cause very
high voltages. If the transformer primary is already at the upper limit, DR can minimize the voltage
drop across the transformer and secondary conductors, which can cause high voltages to the
customers connected in the secondary side.

DR can also have impacts on the losses of the feeder, resulting altering the voltage profile. If the
DR is sized to match the local load and used near the load, it can minimize the line losses
significantly. But if it located far from the substation and delivers power towards the substation or
even back to the transmission network through the substation transformer, distribution system
losses will increase, yet the transmission network losses will reduce.

Interaction of DR and capacitor operations

DR impacts on capacitor operations depend on the DR type, mode of control, location and
capacitor switching controls like system voltage, line current, reactive power flow, time and
ambient temperature. Voltage controlled capacitor banks should not be affected by DR, if DR is
not operating as a voltage controller. To avoid “voltage hunting” between the DR and capacitors,
set points should be adjusted and time delays extended. DR impacts are higher when it operates at
a constant power factor other than the unity. If the capacitor bank is switched on when the local
DR is operating the resultant voltages will exceed the limits.

Protection Issues
 Fuse coordination
As the number of DR on a distribution feeder increases the ability to save fuses for temporary
faults increases. DR contributes an additional current to the fuse and reduces the current seen by
the breaker slightly.
 Feeding fault after utility protection

This can subject the substation transformers to short circuit forces. And also if the DR remains on
line during the reclose interval, it can get damaged due to the reclosing of the utility breaker. Out
of phase reclosing can also occur which can result in transient over-voltages, high
electromechanical torques on customer equipment, and higher inrush currents than normal
reclosing.

 DR on interrupting ratings of devices

DR, using synchronous generators can increase amount of fault current through the utility breakers,
re-closers and fuses. The fault current contributed by the DR varies widely. Inverter-based DR
may supply twice the rated current for a very short period. Rotating machines can contribute higher
rated currents for a prolonged period which includes induction machines.

 Faults on adjacent feeders

This can cause two problems related to DR,

1. Faults in adjacent feeders cause similar voltages as faults on the DR feeder which is
difficult to discriminate.
2. DR feeds the faults on an adjacent feeder back to the DR feeder’s breaker, which can result
in sympathetic tripping of DR feeder’s breaker for faults everywhere in the system.
 Fault detection

As the DR penetration increases on a distribution feeder, DR contribution to faults make it difficult

for conventional utility relays to detect the presence of high impedance faults. Utility fault
detection on distribution systems is almost based on overcurrent. Therefore, the solution is to add
another fault interrupter in the circuit to extend the protection zone.

 Coordination with reclosing

When a DR connected to the downstream side of the breaker or re-closer is not removed before
reclosing, the reclose can be to an energized system which is not synchronized with the system.
Therefore, it can cause out of phase re-closing which can cause very severe transients. This can
damage the DR and also the system. Impacts of out of phase reclosing are, severe switching surge,
large simultaneous inrush currents to the transformers and motors, which can cause nuisance
operation of fuses and other overcurrent protective devices in the system and within customer
facilities and severe torque transients on motors and mechanical loads.
Loss of power grid
Unless the system is designed intentionally for the purpose of islanded operation, unintentional
islanding can cause the system at risk due to a number of reasons.

Islanding can lead to severe over-voltages when islanded due to reasons like, loss of grounding,
self-excitation, or a combination of these.

 Loss of grounding

A single phase fault will cause a breaker or re-closer to operate. This isolates the island from
ground source provided by the substation. Even though the islanding do not persist long, the over-
voltages can damage utility equipment, like surge arresters, and customer equipment.

 Self-Excitation

Islanding a rotating generator DR with a part of the distribution system having capacitive
compensation can cause over-voltages due to self-excitation of the machine. Transformer
saturation in the isolated portion can cause large harmonic current. This can result in the failure of
utility and customer equipment.

The above mentioned impacts bring damage to not only the DGs but also to the system and its
users. Therefore, efficient methodologies should be taken into practices to mitigate such impacts
to run a smooth electricity grid network.
References
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