A Novel Methodology for Reducing Excessive Reactive Power Consumption Penalties for Photovoltaic Prosumers

The present paper proposes a new methodology to solve a problem in the literature in which a consumer becomes eligible for reactive power excess charging (RPEC) after installing a photovoltaic (PV) system, even if its reactive demand has not changed. This problem mainly affects this kind of consumer, which is known as PV prosumers, in countries where the power factor at the point of common coupling (PCC) is used as the main parameter in calculating reactive power excess charges instead of directly pricing the surplus reactive energy delivered from the distribution network. The classical approaches to reducing or eliminating RPEC are based on providing reactive power within the consumer’s installations from their PV inverters and their capacitor banks. However, the solutions presented require optimization studies since the costs of producing reactive energy can be even higher than the penalties involved. In this context, we developed a new hourly-based optimization model for the RPEC problem based on the variable neighborhood search meta-heuristic and the Fibonacci search method. In addition, we apply the proposed methodology to two medium voltage prosumers in Santo André, Brazil. The results showed the proposal’s effectiveness, mitigating RPEC and minimizing the prosumers’ electricity bills without installing new equipment to supply their reactive demand. The best results were found when reactive power was delivered by the capacitor bank and PV inverters simultaneously rather than applying these solutions separately. The proposed hourly-based correction method can help in day-ahead energy management, avoiding premature wear from switching the consumer’s reactive power compensation equipment switches. Also, the methodology proposal improved the power factor at the utility substation, which benefits the power distribution systems.