Design of an optimal placement algorithm for large scale Photovoltaic in sub-transmission networks

Integration of solar energy based large scale Photovoltaic (PV) unit offers significant benefits to power system. Since PV units can be installed close to load centres, improvement in reliability of network by reducing power loss and decrease in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved. The operational characteristics and dynamics of the existing networks will be significantly influenced in near future by the continual increase in the penetration level of large scale PV. Thus, the location and sizing issues of large scale PV need to be appropriately addressed. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to identify the optimal location and size of large scale PV in sub-transmission networks to reduce reactive power losses. The preliminary section of this paper provides literature review with specifications of IEEE 14 and 30 bus networks. Afterwards, the proposed three point loss comparison method based on exact loss formula and perturbation and observation (P&O) algorithm has been described. Then, the proposed methodology has been tested on IEEE networks. The conclusion section summarizes key findings.