Grid incremental capacity evaluation with an optimally deployed photovoltaic system in distribution network

The impact of the inevitable load growth on the power delivery elements (PDE) of the distribution system poses a major challenge to distribution planners with the loading of the PDE coming close to the system constraints. Also, as demand continues to outpace new feeder construction, utilizing distributed generation (DG) capacity to provide incremental capacity and peak load relief is becoming a viable alternative. This paper presents the released capacity analysis as a result of an optimally deployed photovoltaic (PV) system on the IEEE 34 distribution test network. Two critical energy metrics, energy at the risk of being unserved and unserved energy, have been used to determine the additional load serving capacity and duration of upgrade deferral made possible by the integration of the PV system. This particular PV-DG application is suitable for distribution networks with predominantly commercial loads because of the coincidence between the demand and irradiance peaks.