Effect of Integrating Photovoltaic Systems on Electrical Network Losses Considering Load Variation

Planning of Distributed Generation (DG) units in the power distribution networks is an important issue, one of the most important considerations that is directly affected by installing DG units is the power losses. Improper allocation of DG units to the grid can lead to a noticeable increase in the power losses. Moreover, the load variation is considered as critical matter when studying the optimal scenario that minimizes the power losses in the network. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of integrating photovoltaic (PV) units on the distribution network losses considering load variation. The optimal parameters of the DG units were calculated for the various load demands in the system. Moreover, a comparison between the power losses in the case of varying DG penetration level with constant penetration level of DG has been presented. All of the results in this paper have been tested, simulated and investigated on a modified 33-bus IEEE test system using Matlab program.