The Effect of Local Inverter Voltage Control in Technical Losses on Low Voltage of a Brazilian Distribution Feeder with Increasing PV Penetration

The integration of Photovoltaic (PV) systems into Low Voltage (LV) is increasing drastically worldwide. It has become a concern for utilities in high penetration levels due the technical issues lead by this new paradigm. Among benefits and impacts, voltage rise and violation is the prime matter. To mitigate this impact, interconnection standards have been amended to allow the PV inverters to regulate voltage locally. By the other hand, the increasing PV can lead a loss reduction. Thus, in order to investigate the impact of different levels of PV on distribution networks on voltage profile and losses, this paper presents a methodology to assess the effect of local inverter voltage control in network losses and voltage profile. The simulations are carried out through MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) and Open Distribution System Simulator (OpenDSS) by using a Brazilian distribution feeder with 6353 customers in several scenarios analysis. The results indicate the usage of local inverter control techniques is an effective operation to minimize voltage rises and to operate the network within the voltage limits. However, there is an appropriate amount of PV for achieve loss reduction. After certain PV level, the losses can increase significantly.