Impact study of high PV penetration in low and medium-voltage networks when considering residential and industrial load profile

Considering the traditional design of residential electricity distribution networks in Australia and the possibility of reverse power flow due to increased solar photovoltaic (PV) power injection, the possibility of voltage rise is expected to increase. The paper reports voltage performance of low- (LV) and medium (MV) voltage networks under high penetration of solar PV generation. In order to study the voltage performance in these voltage levels, a standard and modified modified 13-Bus IEEE network is simulated in DIgSILENT. Complete grid data and the relevant European grid codes are applied to the simulated case study. The high PV generation is installed in each bus. The presented results of voltage sensitivity and network performance assessment show that a PV penetration strategy must be considered from distribution network operators to deal with voltage profile changes. Restricting the level of solar PV penetration in each household will directly mitigate the influence of such generation on the voltage profile. The case study assesses the performance of both MV and LV networks. A detailed three-phase model for customer loads, various overhead line configurations, Sydney region real sun insolation, realistic line segment distances, MV to LV transformer and capacitor, concentrated and distributed loads are used which help with providing a reliable study.