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HARMONIC IMPACT OF GRID CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC INVERTERS ON

13.8KV DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Conference Paper · September 2010

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Regional Engineering Postgraduate Conference (EPC) 2010

HARMONIC IMPACT OF GRID CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC

INVERTERS ON 13.8KV DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Aida Fazliana Abdul Kadir, Azah Mohamed, Hussain Shareef

Department of Electrical, Electronics and System Engineering
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The installation of distributed generation units in distribution networks will have

a significant impact on the system’s power quality. This paper aims to analyse the
impact of harmonic from the grid connected photovoltaic (PV) inverters system
on a 13.8kV distribution system. The PV system with its inverter model has been
developed using the PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software. Analyses are then
carried out to investigate the impact of the grid connected PV system on the IEEE
13 bus test system. Based on the study, it is found that PV inverters installed at
higher voltage circuit of the system produces less harmonic distortion while PV
inverters at low voltage levels causes more harmonics. Therefore it is
recommended to introduce more inverter based PV systems at the higher voltage
circuits rather than at low voltage circuits.

Keyword: Distributed generation, photovoltaic, inverters, harmonics,

PSCAD/EMTDC

INTRODUCTION

The renewable energy technologies are growing because of the rising

demand on energy, high fuel price, and concerns of environmental impacts. The
development of alternative energy production technologies is needed to improve
the energy production efficiency and reliability and also to reduce the level of
pollution (Begovic, 2001 and Daly, 2001). In this regard, currently many utilities
promote interconnection of independent alternative energy sources in the utility
grid. However, the inclusion of distributed generation (DG) into the distribution
system will have a great impact on the power flow and voltage conditions at the
customer and utility equipments. These impacts may be positive or negative
depending on the distribution network operating characteristics and the DG
characteristics. Barker (2000) highlighted that the DGs can be beneficial if it
meets at least basic requirements of the system operating philosophy and feeder
design. This means addressing issues related to voltage regulation, flicker,
harmonic distortion, islanding, grounding compatibility, over current protection,
capacity limits, reliability and other factors. The larger the aggregated DG
capacity on a circuit relative to the feeder capacity and demand, the more critical
it become to coordination the system with these factors.
Recently, there are significantly high number of PV installations in many
countries because of the good incentive provided by the legislation such as feed-
in tariff and the integration of PV plants into buildings (Gianfranco, 2009). The
fast growth of PV is due to high subsidies through special feed-in tariffs.
According to Geible (2009), feed-in tariffs for new PV plants decrease from 10 to
8% per year. This leads to cutting off the price of PV systems in order to make it
economical and attractive as today. However, the main aspects concerning grid
connected PV inverter operation refer to their impacts on the distribution system
voltage profile, losses, voltage and current waveform distortion (Islam, 2006).
This paper aims to analyse the harmonic impact of grid connected PV
inverter system on the 13.8kV distribution system. A PV inverter model has been
developed in the PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software for this purpose. Then,
the PV inverter model has been analyzed in the IEEE 13 bus test system. The first
case study considers a single 100kW grid connected PV inverter. However, in the
second case study, five units of 100kW are employed to analyse the harmonic
penetration into the grid due to the multiple DG units. Based on this study, a
recommendation is made for suitable allocation of PV inverter such that less
harmonic distortion is produced in the distribution system.

GRID-CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM MODEL

A grid-connected PV system has been developed in PSCAD/EMTDC

simulation software. Figure 1 illustrates a typical PV system connected to the
distribution grid. The system consists of a PV array, a diode, dc-link capacitor,
inverter with a harmonic reduction filters, step up transformer and power grid.
The inverter changes the dc power into ac power, which has a sinusoidal voltage
and the same frequency as the utility grid. The diode blocks the reverse current
flow through the PV array. The transformer steps up the inverted voltage to the
nominal voltage value of the power grid and provides electrical isolation between
the PV system and grid network. The harmonic reduction filter eliminates the
harmonic components other than fundamental frequency (Kim, 2009).

PV Array Inverter Step up Grid System

Filter
transformer

FIGURE 1 Grid-connected PV System

368
 Figure 2 shows the control models of the PV inverter while Figure 3
shows the pulse width modulation technique used for high frequency switching in
PV inverter model. The simple P and Q regulation are used for inverter control
system. For real power regulation, the measuring dc voltage is compared to the
reference dc voltage. The error between two values is processed as an angle
voltage through a proportional-integral (PI) controller. Similarly for reactive
power regulation, the error compared between the desired and actual value of
reactive power, then, processed into magnitude voltage through a proportional-
integral (PI) controller. The output from the inverter controller is used for firing
pulse generation in PWM technique.

FIGURE 2 Control model of PV inverter

FIGURE 3 Simple PWM techniques for high switching frequency

369
 TEST SYSTEMS DESCRIPTION

The PV model has been implemented in the IEEE 13 bus test system
(Shahad, 2005) as shown in Figure 4. The system consists of two generators,
supplying power to the seven static loads. Since there are only static loads, the
system is free from voltage and current harmonic distortions. Therefore, this
system is suitable for connecting the developed PV system model and analyzes
the impact of harmonics on the system. In the simulation, the PV inverter is
connected to each load bus, one at a time.

Gen 1 Gen 2

Bus 1 Bus 4

Bus 5
T1
13.8kV/0.48kV
T7
Bus 2
66kV/13.8kV
L1
PV

Bus 3

L2 PV

Bus 6 Bus 9 Bus 11

T4
T2 13.8kV/0.48kV T5
13.8kV/0.48k 13.8kV/0.48 T6
T3 13.8kV/2.4kV
kV
13.8kV/4.16kV
Bus 7 Bus 8 Bus 10 Bus 12 Bus 13
L5 L6 L7
PV L3 L4 PV PV PV PV

FIGURE 4 IEEE 13 Bus Test System

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The simulations consider two scenarios in which the first simulation

covers the harmonic impact of one 100kW PV inverter unit on the grid when
connected to each load bus, one at a time. The results of voltage, total current and
voltage harmonic distortions due to the single inverter installation are shown in
Table 1. From the Table 1, it shows that the highest total harmonic distortion
(THD) for current and voltage is at the bus 12,10,7 and 2 and the lowest current

370
and voltage THD is at the bus 3. Therefore, the suitable allocation of PV inverter
for this case is at bus 3. It means that the value of voltage level will significantly
affect the value of THD current and voltage, although the rating of PV is similar
for each case. Figure 5 shows the distorted current and voltage waveforms when
a PV inverter was installed at bus 12.
.

TABLE 1 One unit PV (100kW) connected to the grid

Bus Rated Voltage(p.u) THDi (%) THDv (%)

voltage (kV)
2 0.48 0.9624 5.1813 0.2359
3 13.8 0.9940 0.4913 0.0867
7 0.48 0.9710 5.8570 0.2403
8 4.16 0.9726 1.0424 0.1576
10 0.48 0.9721 6.3123 0.3335
12 0.48 0.9674 6.3280 0.2707
13 2.4 0.9570 2.5894 0.2486

FIGURE 5 Distorted current and voltage waveforms when PV system is

connected at Bus 12

In the second simulation, five units of PV inverters are connected at

various load buses in the system. The rating of each of these PV units is 500kW.
The results for the multi PV inverter case are shown in Table 2. Figure 6 shows
the distorted current and voltage waveforms when five PV inverters were
connected in the system.

371
 TABLE 2 Five units of PV inverters (500kW) connected to the grid

Bus Rated Voltage(p.u) THDi (%) THDv (%)

voltage (kV)
2 0.48 0.9642 18.3738 3.8748
3 13.8 1.0659 0.8714 0.2795
7 0.48 0.9728 19.7791 3.9647
8 4.16 1.0900 0.5199 0.1599
10 0.48 0.9743 16.9203 3.5058
12 0.48 0.9685 11.2136 1.8404
13 2.4 0.9900 2.8736 0.5136

FIGURE 6 Distorted current and voltage waveforms at Bus 7 when five PV

inverters are connected to the grid

Table 2 shows the harmonic impacts when the numbers of PV inverters

are increased to five units (500kW). From these results, it can be seen that the
current and voltage THD increases with the increase in the number of PV
inverters. The highest current and voltage THD occurs at bus 7,2,10 and 12 while
the lowest current and voltage THD is at bus 8. Both results in Table 1 and 2
shows that the low voltage buses create more distorted current and voltage
waveforms compared to the higher voltage buses although the rating of the PV
inverters are similar. Therefore, the suitable location for PV inverter in this
system is probably at the bus 8 because they have the lowest current and voltage
THD. However, the voltage level at bus 8 is exceeding the limit by +/- 5%. So,
the next suitable location of PV is at bus 13 because the current and voltage THD
at this bus is quite low and the voltage is at acceptable limit. It means that the
value of voltage level will significantly affect the value of THD current and
voltage, although the rating of PV is similar for each case.

372
 CONCLUSION

The harmonic distortion in grid connected PV system has been assessed by

performing simulation of the PV inverters connected to the IEEE 13 bus test
system. The simulation results indicated that the presence of multiple PV
inverters in the grid tend to increase the current and voltage THD. The low
voltage level at the buses in the distribution system has a significant effect on the
value of current and voltage THD due to the presence of PV inverters. Based on
this study, it is recommended to locate PV inverters at high voltage bus so as to
minimize the harmonic distortions in the distribution system.

REFERENCES

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Begovic, M. 2001, Sustainable Energy Technologies and Distributed Generation,

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Barker, P.P. 2000, Determining the Impact of Distributed Generation on Power
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Society Summer Meeting: 1645-1656

Gianfranco, C. Juergen, S. Filippo, S. 2009, Operation of Multiple Inverters in

Grid-Connested Large-Size PV Installations, 20th International Conference
on Electricity Distribution.

Geibel, D. et.al. 2009, Improvement of Power Quality and Reliability, 10th

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Islam, S. et.al. 2006, Investigating Performance, Reliability and Safety

Parameters of PV Modules Inverters: Test Results and Compliances with
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Shahad, N.A.Y. 2005, Performance of Various Filter Configurations for

Harmonic Mitigation in Industrial Distribution Systems, Master Thesis,
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Kim, S.K. 2009, Modeling and Simulation of a Grid-Connected PV Generation

System for Electromagnetic Transient Analysis, Solar Energy 83:664-678.

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