Analysis of the grid-connected PV plants behavior with FACTS influence

Within the EU Directive 20-20-20, which imposed a decisive action towards renewable energy adoption within electric power systems, this change brought a series of issues for the electric power systems, like losses increase, reliability alteration and power quality depreciation. The power generation of grid-connected PV plants is increasing continuously all over the world reaching values of hundreds of megawatts, thus making these plants a crucial part of the future electric energy system and Smart Grids. FACTS devices can be used to increase transmission capacity, improving stability and dynamic behavior, and ensure a better quality of energy by controlling several parameters. Current paper deals with the issue of power quality alteration, by assessing the influence which FACTS devices might have on the grid-connected PV plants both on normal and restricted conditions operation. In the first section, a general analysis was performed, aimed at identifying the current state-of-the art of FACTS technologies and their influence on power quality. An example was designed, starting from a real electric distribution system, in order to create an array of possible issues and solutions which will be further scrutinized.