Voltage Regulation and Overcurrent Protection Issues in Distribution Feeders with Distributed Generation - A Case Study

The installation of distributed generation (DG) on distribution feeders is known to have an impact on voltage regulation. A DG can provide voltage support in some cases, but can also cause an overvoltage or an undervoltage, depending on the several variables including relative DG size and location, distribution line and load characteristics, and method of voltage regulation. This paper shed some light the impact of DGs on voltage regulation and on overcurrent protection. These impacts are investigated on a feasibility study concerning the installation of a 5 MW grid-tied PV system to a local distribution system.