Impacts of increasing photovoltaic penetration on distribution grid — Voltage rise case study

Increasing electricity prices and unreliable grid supply, has led to increasing PV installation in a distribution network. While the PV installations on a distribution grid reduces the power demand, and eases grid congestion, the increasing PV penetration has several other impacts on the grid, both positive and negative. The paper makes a comprehensive study of the various impacts. Simulations analysis of the most prominent impact on the grid - voltage rise, in a distribution line is performed to understand the severity of the problem for different PV penetration levels. The paper also performs simulation analysis to estimate the impact of the voltage rise on transformer tap changes to regulate the voltage within permissible limits as per standards. It was seen that as the PV penetration increases, the number of tap changes required increase resulting in the reduced life time of the transformer.