An Overview of the Distributed Generation (DG) Connected to the GRID

The author worked on distributed generation (DG) connected to the transmission and distribution GRIDS of Ontario Hydro, from 1985 to 1999. During that period, he has experienced lots of technical problems in connecting to the GRID. In this paper, he would discuss his experiences with the following topics: 1) Types of DG's, including sources of prime power (e.g. water, gas, wind, solar, etc.) in brief 2) Methodology of connection to the GRID minimizing the cost impact to the customers 3) system groundings and transformer connections 4) faults and their effects 5) protective relaying 6) control and metering 7) harmonics and resonance 8) Benefits of DG connecting to the GRID and operating in the micro-GRID format The paper will be concluded with a case study of connecting a DG to the GRID, and conclusions.