Potential harmonic impact of a residential utility-interactive photovoltaic system

The potential voltage distorting effects of a residential photovoltaic (PV) system consisting of PV modules and an inverter for utility interface are investigated by SPICE simulation. The nonlinear inverter is modeled as a collection of current sources in parallel to represent its nonsinusoidal current waveform. The results of the simulation suggest that voltage distortion levels will be below the recommended IEEE Standard 519 limits for virtually all saturation levels of PV systems generating up to 12 kVA of power.