Mitigation of Voltage Variation by REMS for Distribution Feeders

This study develops a renewable energy management system (REMS) for the control of photovoltaic (PV) smart inverters to mitigate the voltage violation of distribution systems with high penetration of PV installation. The impact analysis of distribution feeders with the PV system integration for decision making of smart inverter control has been embedded in REMS to solve the voltage violation problem. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed REMS to enhance the system voltage quality, a PV system installed in a distribution feeder of Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) has been selected for field testing. The real power, reactive power, and voltage of the studied PV system have been collected. The impact analysis of PV integration is performed to solve the mitigation of voltage variation by the control of reactive power compensation of smart inverters. It is found that the voltage at the test PV system is very consistent with the field test results. The computer simulation of a distribution feeder with a large PV farm has been executed to illustrate that the control of smart inverters can enhance the utilization of solar energy by reducing the curtailment of renewable power generation dramatically for a distribution system with high penetration of PV systems.