Impact of Grid Connected Photovoltaic System on Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) of Low Voltage Distribution Network: A Case Study

Integrating renewable energy resources especially photovoltaic systems with microgrids has become an unavoidable choice for most countries and in Egypt the government has this ambition to reach a percentage of 20% of the total national electricity generation from solar energy. Which in turn bring some challenge to the electrical utility operator. In this paper a practical investigation of Grid Connected Photovoltaic System on the Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) on a sample low distribution network is applied on a case study tested during spring and summer seasons. The results are also demonstrated by determining the THD versus the photovoltaic load flow to the connected grid. Moreover, two solutions for power quality improvement are suggested. The first is based on switching at very low current flow conditions and the second is based on adding filters to the system. Finally, the two proposed approaches are implemented using MATLAB Simulink simulation and are compared for their efficiency and applicability.