Impacts of renewable energy integration into the high voltage (HV) networks

Current power systems creates environmental impacts as well as global warming due to utilisation of fossil fuels, especially coal, as carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. It is therefore a fundamental concern today to be able to bring higher percentages of renewable electricity into the energy mix as these sources are climate-frindly and unlimited. However, intermittent nature of power output from renewable energy sources, in particular wind and solar, introduces potential technical impacts that affect quality of power observed including voltage fluctuations, power fluctuations, overloading of distribution transformers and voltage and current harmonics injection into the network. This study developed a simulation model with power system simulation software PSS Sincal to investigate the potential adverse impact of large-scale renewable energy (RE) penetration into the Rockhampton power networks, Queensland, Australia. From the model analyses, it has been clearly evident that large-scale RE integration not only influence in the low voltage distribution network but it also influence in the transmission, subtransmission and high voltage (HV) distribution network in terms of power quality issues such as voltage fluctuations, overloading of transformers and injection of harmonics.