Impact of centralized photovoltaic systems on utility power factor profile using the wavelet variability model

This paper presents the impact of centralized photovoltaic (PV) systems with various power factor (PF) control schemes on the distribution feeder PF profile using the wavelet variability model (WVM). Centralized PV systems are large-scale plants (> 1 MW), deployed at sites of prime solar resource availability and mostly at remote locations. The control strategies are fixed PF and PF schedule which adjusts the PF during day time. The WVM performs geographic smoothing of the irradiance data from a single point sensor across the entire PV plant in order to capture solar variability accurately and its associated interconnection effects on the grid. The IEEE-34 bus system with PV plants integrated close to feeder source, midpoint and end has been used as a case study. The test network contains bus coordinates used to map the feeder to the real world, and thus useful in capturing the locational value of PV systems.