Assessing the Impacts of Solar PV Plants on Distribution Systems using DigSilent
DOI:
https://doi.org//10.32628/IJSRST52310628Keywords:
Photovoltaic (PV), Penetration level, DigSilent, Short Circuit Current, Distribution, Active and Reactive Power Losses.Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of integrating solar PV plants on distribution systems using Botswana Power Corporation greater Gaborone distribution system as a case. The study compares and analyses the system baseline to solar integrated system using DIgSILENT Powerfactory software. The system studies conducted in this paper include short circuit and effects on active and reactive power losses at different penetration factors. This research found out that integrating solar PV plants to the distribution network caused a decrease in grid losses and the extent of power losses decrease vary. Fault level contribution from the PV systems is generally low. In conclusion, the effects of these interconnections on line losses and fault level contribution differs in all circuits under study, therefore network assessment must first be thoroughly conducted before interconnecting solar PV plants with distribution systems as some areas indicated some reverse power flow that could affect the protection systems because initially the distribution system was designed to operate on a single source voltage.
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