Feeder Impact Assessment of Smart Inverter Settings to Support High PV Penetration in California

Smart PV inverter functions have the potential to allow integrating increased PV penetration levels without the need of costly distribution upgrade measures. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of using California Rule 21 Phase I and Phase III smart inverter functions to increase PV hosting capacity. In particular, Volt-var, Volt-watt, and Limit Maximum Real Power functions are analyzed to increase PV hosting capacity by 25% on five real California distribution feeders. Comprehensive simulations are performed on each function over a range of settings, PV/load conditions, and feeder characteristics. Detailed analysis is shown to assess the impact that the settings have on numerous feeder metrics. Volt-var function with var priority is shown to be successful in improving hosting capacity with minimal PV energy curtailment. Additionally, smart inverter functions are compared against the distribution upgrade measures that would otherwise be required to increase the hosting capacity.